Still stinging from the accusation of radio silence (rarely such a thing in my experience.. I always hear that static.....ppsssssssssshhhhh not sure how many s's in that SS! Don't get me started,
Dear God who is not real please help, I'm barely a sentence in and already, with the tangent bracket combos).
London calling.... London calling.... here is a radio silence ending blog.
At the weekend I took a risk or two,
the first risk was to enter another judo competition, following the previously mentioned (see Chapter 19) fiasco in Salisbury.
I put in a reasonable amount of training put on a few kilogrammes of weight (what else could it be eh? perhaps a few kilos of light.... or colour)?
The few kilos could so easily become the few more, I can yet prove my GP right and delight him by developing his predicted moonface.
So back to 90 kg please and fast...
I don't wish to breath my last on the WC with 25lbs of compacted poo in my bowel,
Elvis you were cool but that was not.
So at U100kg I am given a choice fight in the younger age group or fight the one person in my weight / age category as a straight final and then fight the younger ones but without being allowed a medal for it?
The latter choice offered me the guarantee of at least a Silver and hopefully a Gold, as I had beaten this opponent comfortably on previous occasions (he is the one being launched in the photo of the London Open, included in one of my previous vainglorious chapters).
So.... focused, trained and determined, I attacked and threw him inside 10 seconds, for what both of us considered an 10 point ippon score (flat on his back with force).
I subsequently checked this on a video and became even more convinced that the fight should have ended in my favour with this throw........
however it didn't!
We both stopped fighting for a split second and it dawned on me that I had been awarded a 7 point Wazari score meaning the contest would continue, barely had I tried to hold him on his back and finish the job and he was free.
No problem I thought, as he mounted a series of fairly ineffective attacks.
For almost the remainder of this fight I weathered this storm which grew in intensity as he
tried to regain the lead.
He was awarded a couple of penalty shidos for technical infringements, further increasing my comfortable
(surely unassailable Mark) lead.
Unassailable? Well no actually Mark, because you had 12 seconds left did you not?
Well did you!
So did you block him out (with what could only be described as outstanding tactical awareness) for the remaining 12 seconds?
You surely understood that you could even afford to get a penalty and still win comfortably?
No?
Oh dear.....
So you decided to finish it with another throw and got countered leaving you with Silver!
Haaa fool you deserve no more...
Then onto the young ones,where I smashed a few and got smashed by a few.
Then onto the Open Weight Open age group, risky, but I was by this time,
flinging my satin gloves in the face of any one who crossed my path
(not literally you understand but figuratively).
When I say risky my first fight in this group was against a friend Spiro Tomasevic, I believe he is in his late 30's, weighing about 120kg and about 6' 4" tall he is also very capable.
This man represents the kind of challenge I took on when attacking my father as a 3 year old.
Fortunately he is a decent and good judoka and made a serious effort to spare his opponents the battering he could have provided.
In all I had so much fun in the fights I lost, as well as those I won, that I will continue to compete on this semi casual basis
(who am I kidding, I will train harder, compete more often and then disembowelling the next person I fight, I shall slide in their entrails dance a slippery little jig, and laugh at their screams as the light dies in their eyes).
I would at this point like to remind our audience (who is the 'our' in this? I thought it was just me, or am I really developing a serious mental illness as my blog unfolds, note to self; possible film script here, 'mad blogger breaks down whilst blogging then embarks on judo killing spree')
Actually I was so damm happy to be able to compete, even with this MG, that I was enjoying myself more than I can remember at a judo contest and I mean ever..... so lots more please.
The thanks for my entering this go to a good friend Winnie Graham, who overcame a broken neck as a senior, followed by a stroke as a Master to win regularly with sublime judo.
He has a style the like of which most of us can only dream and it was a joy to watch him scythe through his opposition on Saturday.
At a time when I doubted I could continue, his private and intelligent messages convinced me that I should at least try again, this was at a time when many of my friends were handing out the "screw your cock back on and shut up" macho style of counselling.
Well intentioned, but lacking an understanding of how this MG had affected my psychology.
Serve me right for plastering it over FB then? Damm right too, it is slightly nauseating this public breast beating and I deserved the quality of advice I got once making myself available as public property.
The second risk........ well I am going to have leave you guessing but it included various attempts upon my life, a fast car and a person I love and respect beyond belief.
Next Chapters exciting episode?
Maybe maybe not.
Over and out (even though that's not how they end a radio transmission)
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