SAMURAI Judo Club have enjoyed their best ever year.

In competitive terms, the Wyre Forest outfit achieved the best ever results at 2014’s major tournaments, winning gold medals in the process.

Their biggest success came at the British National Championships, where James Hemer became the first player from the club ever to win gold for two years running.

Darcie Hancocks and Leah Grosvenor became the first two players from Samurai ever to meet in a British final – a feat then repeated by Paul Spencer and Mark Flello in the British Masters.

Former Samurai players members Sally and Rachel Moon, who had both been British Champions individually when at the club, repeated the same feat in the older junior section of the event.

In the veterans section, Paul Jones became the first club member ever to gain the grade of sixth dan, and later in the year stepped onto the competition mat for the first time in over a decade to win gold at the British Masters.

His grade was one of eight black belt promotions this year for Samurai.

The girls section of the club gets stronger and stronger, and when the England squads were announced last week it emerged they had more girls on the England pre-cadet and cadet squads than the rest of the Midlands put together.

The club’s non-competitive activities have also reached new levels, having successfully hosted the British Masters, British 10/11 Years , and National Team Championships’.

The British Special Needs tournament was also successfully staged by the Kidderminster club.