SAMURAI Judo Club hit the opposition for six at their Green Belt & Below Open Championships, taking six gold medals, five silvers and five bronzes against around twenty other clubs from all over the Midlands and beyond.

The event was as usual split into a lower grades section and a higher grades one, and started with the boys lower grades. First up for the Samurai was Nick Deeley, who reached the semi-final of his category before losing to a London player but then beat a Welsh player on the ground to win the bronze. In the next category, Jordan Phillips secured his habitual gold medal, beating players from Wales and Birmingham in his quarter-final and semi-final with hold-downs and then throwing a Stroud player for maximum points in the final.

Archie Minkin was next to compete and for his second competition in a row reached the final, throwing players from Builth Wells and Telford on the way, but the Newport player he faced in the final was far more experienced and Archi had to settle for silver.

In the next category, Samurai had both Alex Spencer and Edward Martin taking part and they met in the final after some good wins, Alex producing definitely the throw of the day along the way. Alex finally edged it to take gold with Edward taking silver.

The next category again saw an all-Samurai final after Luke Jahromi and Scott Hulbert defeated all of their opponents. Scott was on great form, none of his contests on the way to the final having lasted more then ten seconds, and whilst Luke held him off for a minute and a half the result was never in doubt: gold to Scott and silver to Luke.

In the boys higher grades, Luke Phillips was first up and reached the final of his category before losing a close match to a Halesowen player and so ending with silver. Harrison Flello added a bronze in the category after that, and in the category after that Mateo Allen finished just outside the medals in fifth place.

Having already got a gold medal earlier on, Scott Hulbert had a go at the higher grades as well and against the odds defeated a much more experienced Stroud player in his first contest and ended up with a bronze. However, this category was dominated by his Samurai clubmate James Harrison, who won all of his contests with ease, almost producing exhibition throws, to take the gold.

The girls lower grades saw the debut of Maya Osborne, who pout in a brave performance and was rewarded by a bronze medal. In the next category, meanwhile, Poppy Bowman looked unstoppable, beating players from Wolverhampton, Worcester and Stroud, all by maximum points, to take the gold. Then, in the last of the girls lower grade categories, Alex Collins did well against higher grades and weventuallt beat another Worcester girl to earn the bronze.

Poppy Bowman also entered the higher grades section and did exceptionally well, beating much higher grades than herself from Bath and Telford to reach the final before defeat against a Worcester player meant she had to settle for silver to go with her earlier gold.

Last Samurai player to take to the arena was Rhea Turner, who although up against much older players cruised to four wins out of four and the club’s sixth gold medal of the day.

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