Cliff
Pollard’s Submission Wrestling Competition
June 13th
2004
By Carl Fisher
After
the success of the NE BJJ League competition the other month, Cliff Pollard decided
to test the competition waters and hosted his first submission wrestling competition
at the Acklam Sports Centre in Middlesbrough on Sunday June 13th; the
event attracted over 50 grapplers from all over the North East, Hull and Manchester
and included Mel Leathley’s Sport Jiu Jitsu squad, Middlesbrough Shooters,
GB Manchester and Newcastle and clubs representing Cliff Pollard and Peter McQueen.
Mel’s squad consisted of a handful of female fighters who turned up on the
day to fight other females and once again, faced off against each other, as there
were no other ladies there on the day — if, in the future there are ladies
ready to fight then instructors, please contact my good self at barramanchester@hotmail.com
and I’ll pass the word on.
The
event was held in an old school type gymnasium, with two mats in action and probably
on the hottest day of the year, which led to tropical like humidity inside the
competition arena, which led to a major decrease in injuries, due to the heat,
but I dare say a rather large quantity of dehydrated fighters at the end of the
day. Each match lasted five minutes, no points were given at any time and the
judge’s decisions were final, if no subs were achieved.
Shergul
& Burke
Due to coaching
and competing, I didn’t get to watch as many fights as I would have liked
but three fighters stood out amongst the crowd and all from the same team —
Shergul Mahameddie, Richard Dale (aka The Jabroni) and Glyn Sherwood all fight
out of the Middlesbrough Shooters gym and it was Sherwood who blazed a trail of
devastation in the -70’s division with a number of lightning fast flying
arm bars; Mahameddie competed in the -80 bracket and used a solid wrestling base,
backed up with a healthy supply of submissions to capture the top spot. Richard
Dale took the top spot in the -85 division with crisp submissions, catching yours
truly out along the way with an arm bar from the guard and ensured a trio of gold
medals for the Shooters.
Ian
Ball mount
GBUK fared well
in the event with very impressive performances from Gav Bradley from Newcastle
and Will Burke from Manchester; Bradley, who carried off a favourable Chuck Liddell
impression on the day, took the under 75 division with a combination of takedowns,
groundwork and an impressive array of submissions. Will Burke lost only one match
to a decision in the -80 bracket to the eventual winner, Mahameddie and then made
up for the loss with three straight wins all by subs.
Full
credit to Mel’s lasses for fighting each other AGAIN, lets hope they can
get some opponents in the near future; shouts out to Warren Oliver and crew who
taped all the fights and Peter Mc Queen, who arranged all the round robin matches,
which ensured all the fighters had at least two fights on the day and also to
Cliff Pollard and Dave Elliott who judged throughout the day together with Peter
and Warren — if I’ve left any other judges names out, apologies from
myself and well done on a good job.
Let’s
hope that the day’s success will encourage Cliff to host another event in
the near future and get more grapplers up to the North east to compete.
Results
(courtesy of Cliff Pollard)
Ladies U 60k
Maria Hildyard
Gold
Danielle Lewis
Silver
Amanda Clayton
Bronze
Ladies U 75
Melissa Leathley Gold
Manpreet
Sangha Silver
Steph Ellis
Bronze
Mens U 70
Glyn Sherwoood Gold
Steve Bigland
Silver
Decca Henderson Bronze
Mens U 75
Gavin Bradley
Gold
Graham Beaumont Silver
Paul Hannard
Bronze
Mens U 80
Shergul Mahameddie Gold
Leslie Ojugbana
Silver
Will Burke
Bronze
Mens U 85
Richard Dale
Gold
Carl Rannigan
Silver
Chris Hallett
Bronze
Mens U 90
Aaron Naisbett
Gold
Michael Turner
Silver
Steven Dowding
Bronze
Mens U 100
Philip Defries
Gold
Sam Harvey
Silver
Richard Bourne
Bronze
