SENI 05 report

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since the highly successful SENI 04 weekend and that once again the UK's martial arts movers and shakers would be displaying their wares to martial artists and general public alike.

It's hard to believe that a year has passed since the highly successful SENI 04 weekend and that once again the UK's martial arts movers and shakers would be displaying their wares to martial artists and general public alike. Moving on from last year's event, the Gracie Invitational was held inside the main exhibition arena and more to the point, tucked away in a corner, somewhat like an afterthought. The event the year before had its own massive hangar sized arena, resplendent with bleachers either side of the mats and made for a great day's spectating - not so this year. Being tucked in to a corner, over 350 entrants had to jockey for seating arrangements with spectators, friends and family alike on only two sides that were at best a joke and had the added hassle of having insufficient storage space for training bags and an ever present menace of jumped up officialdom on permanent bag watching and confiscating duties, hardly the best prep for any fighter.

When asked about this situation, the GI organisers informed me that their hands were tied and that the SENI organisers had made drastic changes to space allocation, resulting in the above and to give the guys credit, four mat areas were in action throughout the day in a bid to get through all the fights. Referees included Marc Walder, Braulio Estima, Escorrega, Felipe Jerry, Andy Roberts and Eddie Kone (apologies if I missed anyone out!) who worked flat out all day without so much as a break.

As ever the white belts were first out onto the green and yellow mats and there was action on every mat, submissions coming thick and fast; GB Bradford Sacha King stood out from the crowd in his weight division picking up the gold medal with a nice display of technique and finishing skills. The GBUK team were out in force as were the Carlson Gracie Team which included a tough contingent of fighters from their Budapest camp, who walked away with five gold medals and one silver. This haul may have been larger had a larger number of scheduled fighters not dropped out of the event through injuries and personal commitments, which paved the way for the Roger Gracie Academy to take the first place in the team medals.

Newly formed GB Bristol academy had a good day with one gold, two silver and one bronze and Chris ‘The Squid' Brown from Oldham Martial Arts Centre gave the crowd a shock, choking out his opponent cold with a wicked collar choke en route to silver in his division. Chris did not feel the guy go out and he didn't tap to the technique so Brown carried on with the choke and by the time the ref stepped in, his opponent was flat out. The St John's ambulance guys were over in a flash and after a bit of flapping by a number of concerned onlookers, his opponent was back awake and walked off the mats unaided. Once again, the mighty Chris Crossan was on form and walked away with the gold medal in the blue belt division - someone promote the guy and give the blue belts a break next year!

Unfortunately, by the time the purple belts were on the mats, I was on my way back to Manchester, due to cadging a lift down to the event and missed the best fights of the day - maybe in future events, the purples can start first, as their numbers aren't as large as the whites and blues.

Being in the main room gave me a chance to have a look around and it was nice to meet Ian Freeman and Rob Hewitt for a quick chat and photo, as they were promoting their new MMA magazine Fighters Only, as was Malcolm Martin and co who were busy promoting the new look Fighters magazine. Andy Smith of Evolution Fightwear was hard at it, flogging his wares all day and highlight of the day was the announcement of a world record attempt of one fingered push ups……on a coconut. People beware; this had to be seen to be believed.

As ever, there were the usual iffy reffing decisions and accusations of sandbagging were bandied about the internet post event, but the competition drew in the biggest list of competitors ever for a UK event and it looks like the venue will be changing to accommodate next year's anticipated deluge of fighters, which I, for one am pleased about, after suffering first hand from the bag watching militia and their cohorts' continual haranguing, as I was trying to get through to matside to take some shots. You will not be missed.

To everyone who fought on the day, you guys are the stars of the day; like the old cliché says, everyone's a winner for having the guts to step up and fight and the public were given another fine display of sportsmanship and quality BJJ and that's all one can ask for.

See you on the mats!

Team Results, using 3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze

RGA = 1st
GB Birmingham = 2nd
Master = 3rd

adult feather white
gold - paul janew - GB Birmingham
silver - Barry Wilson - St Helens BJJ
bronze - nathan - GB Birmingham

adult heavy white
gold - tony passos - btt
silver - david long - gb bristol
bronze - richard quinn - GB Essex

adult light white
gold - cedric akapovi - GB Birmingham
silver - dean pearson - RGA
bronze - Yousuf Nabi - Gordo

adult m heavy white
gold - daniel Thomas - master
silver - yohan les cure - master
bronze lukas szymanski - liverpool BJJ

adult middle white
gold - petar pecija - carlson gracie budapest
silver - Kassan Hipkiss - pkmy
Bronze - Scott Pickering - Wolfslair

adult super feather white
Gold - sacha king - GB Bradford
silver -vishal patel - GB Milton Keynes
bronze - stuart wilkinson - wolfslair

adult super heavy white
gold - john law - RGA
silver - david allinson - De Souza
Bronze - Mark Long GB Bristol/Ozan Anmet RGA

adult super super heavy white
gold - theo theodoulou - master
silver - mark bottom - GB Sheffield
Bronze -

master feather white
gold - james smart - GB Bristol
silver - Fasal Rahman BTT
Bronze - Dominic Szikora Master

master heavy white
gold - steve gilbertson - master sunderland
silver - robert beck - carlson gracie budapest
bronze - brian paul - RGDA

master light white
gold - Magek - Carlson Gracie London
silver - Scott McKail - GB Edinburgh
bronze - Phillip Paisley - GB Swansea

master m heavy white
gold simon phillips SDCS Exeter
Silver - Ian Ball bolton bjj
Bronze - Sean Ryan GB Channel Islands

master middle white
Gold Chris Shakira GB Birmingham
Silver - Gary King GB Bristol
Bronze - George Newall GB Milton Keynes

master super heavy blue
gold - james o'gorman
silver - peter mcfadden

master super super heavy blue
gold - vic scott - sbg
silver - steve foster - tony bebbington JJ
bronze - aldo di giorgi - GB Newcastle

adult feather blue
gold - neil croston Bolton BJJ
silver - alan edmondson - master
bronze - kevin capel RGA

adult heavy blue
gold - Cory Smith - GB Birmingham
silver - Bulent Bingol - De Souza
Bronze - Nicholas Jones - GB Swansea

adult m heavy blue
gold - kevin webb - GB Birmingham
silver - Dod Granville - University of Yrk
Bronze - Ricky Turner - GB Essex

adult middle blue
gold - Ste Dwason RGA
Silver - Robby du Toit RGA
bronze - mathew sellars GB Bristol

adult rooster blue
gold - ian malone GB Newcastle
Silver - Spencer Hewitt GB Essex

adult blue super feather
gold - Chris RGA
Silver - Leo Aguilar RGA
Bronze - Perry Deiley

adult super heavy blue
gold - gabor fodor Carlson Gracie Budapest
Silver - dave fowler GB Essex
Bronze - Michael Quanlivan RGDA

adult super super heavy blue
gold - Chris Crossan - GB Stockton
silver - Stephen Williams BTT
bronze - Marc Goddard - GB birmingham

master feather blue
Gold - nick brooks RGA
Silver - Chris Brown TMAA
Bronze - Javed Uddin RGA/Ebe Ghansah GB MK

master heavy blue
gold - Istan Vasas Carlson Gracie Budapest
silver - russell Callaghan
bronze - Sam Howey Master Sunderland

master light blue
gold - Chiu Kwong GB Birmingham
silver - Stephen Keen BTT
bronze - Tony Devine GB Bradford

master m heavy blue
gold - steve finan RGA
silver - rob stevens GB Birmingham
bronze - Steve Brand GB Essex

master middle blue
gold - leszek Chybowski Carlson London
silver - Brian Hurley RGA
bronze - Paul Rowland Rga

master super heavy blue
gold - alan McCune - GB Edinburgh
silver - Chris Watts - GB Milton Keynes
bronze - Rashid Mekhalfia - RGA

purple over 76kg
Gold - Henrique Santana Carlson London
Silver - Helio Pereira RGA
Bronze - Dickie Martin

purple under 76kg
Gold - Felipe Almeida Master
Silver - Varqa Abyaneh SBG
Bronze - james duncalf BTT

adult female blue open
gold - caoimhe mcgill gb belfast
silver - carol fan SBG

adult female white open
Gold - Anna Mayne SBG
silver - Beaua Ali RGA
bronze - Hannah Clarke Mo Teague

juveniles
Rooster
gold - tyrone elliott GB Newcastle
Silver - Dean Searle - De Souza

Feather
gold - Mikel Ghansah - GB Milton Keynes
Silver - Morton Hopkinson - Mansfield Constrictors
Bronze - Lawson Tennant - Mansfield Constrictors

Above 70kg
gold - luke young - SBG
silver - anthony griffin - Tony Bebbington JJ

Team Results, using 3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze

RGA = 1st
GB Birmingham = 2nd
Master = 3rd