Batley Inter Club Comp

Batley Inter Club Submission Wrestling Competition, Sunday 29^th June 2003

By Carl Fisher

The growth of our beloved sport just keeps on gaining momentum up and down the UK, as more and more people are bitten by the grappling bug; keen to test their skills on the mats, for many of the beginner’s, finding a suitable competition where the skill level reflects their new found abilities can often be a difficult task. Step forward Darren Currie, Yorkshire’s promoter extraordinaire, who arranged a mini invitational between Darren’s Combat Base Academy, Neil Hall’s Fighting Chance Academy and a number of Spenna trained warriors. The grapplers had no more than a couple of matches experience, many were first timers and had the added bonus of fighting on the hottest Sunday of 2003 at Neil’s spacious academy.

Sitting at the judge’s table throughout the day, I was able to sit back and actually watch and appreciate the individual bouts, without having to run around taking photos all afternoon; all the fighters displayed great sportsmanship and fought within the rules and for the losers, accepted defeat honourably and without question. Given that the fighters were mainly first timers, all the matches were fought out with one thing in mind, to win with a submission, not hug each other and win on points and this made for some very exciting fights.

Tom Churchill fought two hard matches winning one on points and losing one on points, showing nifty takedowns and mat awareness and by far one of the best fights was between Emma James and Jenny Noakes who went at each other one hundred per cent, with James winning with the rear choke. Richard Foggy Fothergill took his match with a nicely timed arm bar and Adam Showell beat Phil Lee with a textbook Achilles lock.

Initially the fighter’s had just one match up, but a number of the fighters, with their adrenaline running, hit the mats for a second bout, the enthusiasm and excitement clearly in evidence and now with their taste for competition truly whetted, it won’t be long before these new young bloods start hitting the bigger scene and run with the big shots……..

Inter Club Results

Mark Chapman beat Tom Churchill by points

William Meeham beat Andrew Sharp by submission

Jamie Collins beat Mark Rawson by points

Ian McGreavy beat James Cemmill by points

Vince Moran beat Anthony Doyle by points

Paul Smith beat Jonathan Mattocks by arm lock

Varqa beat Adam Showell by arm lock

Ben Mallows and Mark Gibbons drew

Emma James beat Jenny Noakes by choke

Jimmy Tyler beat Ryan Wesley by points

Richard 'Foggy' Fothergill beat Thomas Barbour by arm lock

Eddie Howarth beat Jonathan Mattocks by points

Adam Showell beat Phil Lee by Achilles lock

James Cemmill beat Eddie Howarth by choke

Tom Churchill beat Andrew Sharp by points

Phil Lee beat Mark Chapman by points

Jimmy Tyler beat Thomas Barbour by arm lock

William Meeham beat Mark Rawson by arm lock

Carl Fisher beat Vince Moran by rear choke