FIVE Samurai players attended a referee qualification course at different levels, run by the British Judo Association but hosted at Kidderminter's Samurai club.

All five passed their varied levels of theory exam, now just needing to complete the practical assessments. Jack Walker passed for club level referee, the first referee qualification, whilst Olivia Turner and Sophie Deeming-Lane passed area level, and Rob Alloway and Laura Dangerfield passed for national C level.

On the table officials course the same day, Josh Mills gained his contest recorder award.

Meanwhile, Laura was also in action in the senior section of the Eastern Area Open Championships, where she took bronze.

Darcie Hancocks also won bronze in the under 18 cadet section.

Harley White, Luke Mole and Alex Spencer all took part in a multi-club boy's minimon day, which featured both individual categories and then mix-and-match teams.

Alex took a bronze in the individual categories, whilst Luke and Harley were in the same category and met in the semi-final. Luke won this match but lost the final to a much heavier player and had to settle for silver, whilst Harley went on to win the bronze.

In the teams, Alex helped his team to take bronze, whilst Luke’s team and Harley’s team met in the final. Luke again beat Harley in the final, but Harley was able to keep the score to below maximum points and this meant that his team won on points and took the gold, whilst Luke’s team had to settle for silver.

This weekend, Samurai host both a coaching course at the Zortech Avenue premises, which is on both Saturday and Sunday, and a national technical officials course at Gilt Edge Leisure Centre on Sunday.

The club has long been at the forefront of running top quality competitions and have two of the five members of the National Competitions and Technical Officials Commisision, including Andrew Haffner as chair.

The British Judo Association has also just awarded the club the rights to host the English Junior and Senior Open in 2017, which will be at Walsall, as Wyre Forest no longer has a venue capable of hosting major events. The English Senior Open is expected to feature most of the British players who went to the 2016 Olympics.

For details about starting judo, telephone 0776 1122977 or visit the Samurai website on www.samurai.org.uk or their Facebook page.