British Open 2014

Being such a large tournament it was always destined to be a long and unpredictable day; I had booked the first train to Birmingham and paid for two return fares to prevent a repeat my desperate rush to the bus stop from the Welsh Open.

Turns out I wasted two tickets instead of one, despite my category starting at 4.15 I didn't receive my medal (SPOILER ALERT) until 8pm after the last match of the day and the mats where being piled in the corner of one of the cavernous hangers that make up the Birmingham N.E.C.

After an early start I bumped into Ross and Laurence from Roger Gracie Gymbox at Euston station so shared a pleasant journey discussing such things as the effect of adrenaline on the bowels, or 'the nervous shits'. I had always classed this phenomenon as a positive when you needed to drop an extra couple of pounds to make weight.

My teammate Sophie was on early in the day and came up against ‘a master class in active stalling’ where her opponent effectively judo pinned while switching the hips enough to avoid penalties. There was a long wait leading up to my category that was filled with wandering aimlessly round the N.E.C.

My first opponent played into my A game and it finished quickly enough with a triangle, worryingly he told me he’d seen me do the exact same thing on YouTube and thought he was prepared for it. While being able to pull off a move your opponent is expecting is something I’d wish to master, I’m going to have to start mixing up my game and going for a few more outlandish submissions.    

In the second match he defended my back take attempt which left me in position for an omoplata, I looked to solidify the position, controlling the hips and bringing my foot in front of his face.  Pulling backwards to defend the shoulder lock placed my foot directly in front of his throat, I figured it was worth a shot to reached up and pulled down his head for the tap.  Coming off the mat I was visually shocked to have pulled off a gogoplata in a match, hopefully that will confuse future opponents who bother to Google me.

(One and a half hours later.)

My third and regrettably final match was a nightmare, I managed to get my opponent into position for a triangle on two occasions but couldn’t finish it, I was overly dogmatic in holding on and not switching for the arm or resetting, convinced I could make it work if only I could adjust a little bit more. After having my guard passed I was a broken man holding on for survival, partly due to the toughness of my opponent and partly as he had already crushed my ego by escaping the triangle.

Following the match we were desperate to head back but had to wait for the results to be fed into the computer system and end up an hour later as bits of paper being brought from the other side of the hall. Telegraphs would have been a more efficient form of communication.

After receiving my half pound of bronze we still had to negotiate the car park which despite being eerily empty, required something approaching a black belt or a PhD to locate the exit in the face of counterproductive and contradictory signage.

Many thanks to my team mates Ed, Mike, Dan and Sophie for all their support on the day and especially Ed and Mike for the lift home and staying to the bitter end.