FATHER and son duo Mark and Martin Allen both celebrated their promotions to brown belt by gaining their first points towards black belt at the Rod Lane Kyu Grades Championships at Samurai Judo Club’s Zortech Avenue headquarters.

This competition, in memory of one of the club’s greatest ever stalwarts, is one very close to Samurai hearts. Rod Lane sadly died of a brain tumour 14 years ago; he was a black belt, a high level referee, a coach and a committee member.

Jake Ashen was making his senior competition debut at the age of just 14, and despite being up against players in their twenties he won all three of his contests by maximum points to take the gold medal.

Adam Funnell is a new name to the club. Having been a very successful player at Kin Ryu Judo Club in Crawley in Sussex, he recently moved to Evesham to live and immediately joined the Samurai club. A lightweight brown belt, he and Martin Allen were in the same weight group and both took bronzes, with Adam also clocking up 20 points towards his black belt and Martin clocking up his first ten points. Martin’s dad Mark was also competing in the middleweight section and he had some really good contests and also gained his first ten points. Players need 100 points for promotion, gaining ten points for each contest against a brown belt or above that they beat by maximum points.

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