CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY KARATE CLUB CUKC ±± www.cukc.org ±± 17 January 2007 ±± Issue 1 Japan tour, page 2 Competitions, pages 3-4 Sensei Richard, page 6 Tour report, including EUSA, Student Nationals, Thoughts on the past year, results of the friendship Brunel kata – all the latest plus a look forward to the term match against Keio. reports, results and pictures. ahead from the Captains. MEDAL Happy New Year to Lent Term 2008 Calendar Sunday 20 January Fenner’s Club Demonstration – followed by pub trip. karateka old and new! Saturday 9 February Kelsey Kerridge Matt Price – former European Shotokan champion, First off welcome to the first ever CUKC current European and World Shotokan team newsletter! We’ve had an exciting 2007 and champion, Matt Price is without a doubt one of the hopefully 2008 will be just as good. most exciting karateka on the competition circuit, Over the summer break the squad trained and and he’s a top class instructor as well. prepared for the exchange trip and friendly match Sunday 10 February Fenner’s with Keio University in Japan. In the match the whole team fought amazingly, and we just Rob Foulkes – guest instructor. managed to edge it, taking the match 4-3 – Saturday 23 February Iffley Road, Oxford securing revenge for our loss back in the early ’90s. The trip was The Varsity Match – the most important fantastic and we hope to host Keio here in November. See page 2 for a competition of the year. Cambridge enters defending full report on the trip. all three team trophies after last year’s complete At the start of Michaelmas the club went into overdrive to annihilation of the dark blues. All members of the encourage new members to join at the Freshers’ Fair. We spoke to club are encouraged to come and spectate. hundreds of budding karateka over the two days and the atmosphere was great, with so many people interested in various aspects of karate. The Monday 3 March Fenner’s demo was a huge success with a massive turnout, with many members Leah Howlett – guest instructor and kyokushinkai of the club showing prospective beginners how it’s done, both in the expert. dojo and at the pub afterwards. Saturday 8 March Chesterfield This year we have also seen our dear chief instructor Sensei Richard reach the lofty heights of 6th Dan! This is a fantastic KUGB Central Regions Championships – regional achievement, and truly reflects Sensei’s experience and dedication to competition for students and non-students (and karate, which we have all greatly benefited from. As well as instructing, adults and children), ideal for people wanting to try Sensei has been key in supporting the club; leading the demos, coaching out competing in kata or kumite for the first time as at competitions and helping with transport, and somewhat foolishly well as for regular competitors. inviting us all to a BBQ now and then! Just to say: Richard, Thursday 13 March Fenner’s congratulations and keep up the good work! Bob Poynton – guest instructor. We rounded off just before Christmas with the grading taken by Sensei Bob Poynton, where it was great to see so many white belts Thursday 13 March Fenner’s getting their first coloured belt – which they should be very proud of. Lent Grading – with Sensei Bob Poynton. Apologies that I couldn’t make it to see you all (so you’ll just have to do it all over again on 13 March!), but I’m told the grading was a great Thursday 13 March success, as was the social after. End-of-term social – celebrate grading success and So here we are entering 2008 – with lots of exciting things the onset of the Easter holidays at the end-of-term lined up: the all-new Lent demo, Matt Price, Rob Foulkes, the Varsity social. Details to be announced nearer the time. Match, the grading, Bob Poynton, Chris Leuke, Leah Howlett, BUSA, Sat-Sun 15-16 March Sheffield KUGB Centrals, and plenty of socials, including the second and third instalments of the Great Mill Road Pub Crawl (and after the first one BUSA Championships – The largest and most you’d be mad to miss out on these) – what more could you want? So prestigious student karate championships in the just to say, enjoy the rest of this year, train hard, and play hard too! country, with the WKF rules system. The only Steph xxxx chance to earn a Full Blue. Stephanie McTighe CUKC President More details on all of these events can be found on the [email protected] website, www.cukc.org. 14 January 2008 ±± Issue 1 2 ±± JAPAN ±± www.cukc.org CUKC victorious after tough match in Japan In September 2007 the team travelled to whose average age was 74 years. are now experts at classics ranging from Japan in order to train with and compete The competition was held in the the club anthem, Eye of the Tiger, to against several Japanese University middle of the fortnight, as a reprieve Kung Fu Fighting, We are the teams. from the hundreds of squat mae-geris Champions and Barbie Girl. Members of the team were the team went sightseeing in Kyoto, and Members of CUKC were Richard Poole (coach) Ian MacLeod bathed at Hacona, perhaps the most enormously grateful to Miki (Men’s Captain), Paul Smith, Simon ridiculous ‘hot springs’ in the world, Waterhouse, Kurono Masashi and the Picot, Gareth Bradley, Adam Tun, Chris featuring overcrowded baths of various members of Keio University Karate Andrews, Andrew Routh, Madeleine colours, representing flavours such as Club for their hospitality during our ‘red wine’ and ‘green tea’, and a visit, and also to Steve Mannion, Simon paddling pool where fish could nibble at Hastings, Grant Leaity and Jason tired karatekas’ feet. Purcell, the Cambridge University Old The match itself took place in Boys without whose support this visit the main campus sports hall, where kata would not have been possible. In and block breaking sessions took place addition thanks are owed to Ken Hori, before the kumite competition. Each the Cambridge Old Boy whose Japanese team consisted of six men and two ladies heritage enabled him to prepare us for (two of our competitors were injured the intricacies of essential Japanese Wood (Women’s Captain), Stephanie during training and could not etiquette. McTighe (Club President) and Katerina participate). In a very challenging The team has extended a formal Pateraki. encounter the end result was very close invitation to Keio University to visit us Following in the footsteps of with Cambridge University enjoying a in November 2008. This would provide the old boys twenty years previously, the victory by 4 wins to 3, with one draw. the opportunity for Keio University to team was accommodated by and trained Paul Smith was singled out for praise in compete at the KUGB Student Nationals with the Karate Club of Keio University a speech by the chief referee for his and would hopefully coincide with the in Tokyo. The club is 83 years old and fighting spirit, height and spectacular ESKA championships being held in has the distinction of being the first use of kicking and punching Sunderland. University at which Gichin Funakoshi combinations. taught. The twice daily training regime Aside from karate, the main Clockwise from top left: The team at the included instruction and matches with a entertainment was karaoke, which very Imperial Palace in Tokyo; Ian, Paul and number of other university clubs: quickly grew on the whole team. Even Katerina score in their fights; Sensei’s Hitotsubashi, Housei, Waseda, and those who were initially sceptical of this rendition of ‘Wild Thing’; Cambridge, Tokyo, and was broken up with training ritual form of public embarrassment Keio, and the CUKC Old Boys after the at the JKA Headquarters, and kata with soon came round to the idea with the match. the Mokukai, the Keio Old Boys Club help of unlimited sake. The entire team 14 January 2008 ±± Issue 1 www.cukc.org ±± LANCASTER / EUSA ±± 3 KUGB Summer School In early August shuttle run where not one, but two CUKC six members of members fell over! CUKC travelled On the Wednesday afternoon we to Lancaster decided to leave Lancaster and visit Morecambe University with Bay. What started out as a cold and damp day over 200 other suddenly turned into a nice day, and what do karateka from karateka do on a nice day? They do kata on the around Britain beach! for a five-day The highlight of the week was the long training party on the Tuesday evening. We did our best camp with the most senior instructors from the to increase the average alcohol consumption and KUGB. With two training sessions a day, split it clearly paid off with Matt Price by grade, it was hard work, but very complementing our karaoke skills and Bob informative. Some of the sessions were very Poynton dancing with us! physical whilst others were more thinking We all had a great time (as all the many about how and why techniques are used. pictures on Facebook show), but unfortunately With every afternoon free there was it had to end. However if you missed out, the plenty of time for relaxing, or doing more 2008 Lancaster summer training camp will be training! The Monday and Tuesday had bo happening in August and CUKC will be sending sessions (Japanese staff) so you could learn to another group up to train again this year. fight with a weapon while Thursday was a superstars competition. Events included Top: Senior instructors at the summer school basketball, football, sumo and the infamous Bottom: Fun at the karaoke night CUKC win team kata bronze at EUSA In July three members of CUKC travelled to performance of the same kata, and they went on Podgorica, Montenegro to compete in the to take gold.