The year ended with the sad death of Lyn Costa wife of Secretary Keith
Costa, Lyn was often seen in her electric buggy and before her MS got really
bad she would be one of our table officials our thoughts go out to Keith and
the rest of the family.
The New Year started with an invite to a formation of a Commonwealth
Sambo Association, this was the concept of Lord Reading and Andrew Moshanov.
The idea in principle is a good one but its formation is totally wrong; I have
reported on this on several occasions but just to say at the meeting not one
representative from the Commonwealth was an official member of FIAS; 90% were
Judoka, Andrew Moshanov is a Russian living in England and Lord Reading has
never been seen at a Sombo event. So a very strange meeting especially as they
formulated a committee etc.
On contacting FIAS they had no knowledge of this organisation or Andrew
Moshanov. It seems Andrew, I believe, is an employee of the FIAS President and
a very experienced Judo Coach who used to work for the BJA. As this
organisation was formed the BSF decide to organise a Commonwealth Sombo
Championships to be held in September in Scotland; this was a complete failure,
so much so, we cancelled the event as the only entries we had were from the UK
so it does put in doubt the viability of a Commonwealth Sombo organisation without
funding from FIAS or Lord Reading.
A couple of good things that came out of this meeting were that I met
with Alan Jones, the Welsh National Wrestling Coach and 7th Dan Judo, who will be joining his Welsh Wrestling Association in 2013
and I met up again with Terry Watt from Ulster; he made CSA Secretary but has
since resigned. The CSA has had no meetings, competitions etc. since to my
knowledge we have not been approached to affiliate. I hope some sort of
Commonwealth body is formed but it must be done under the auspices of FIAS
I attended three major Internationals: the European Championships held
in Moscow, a marvellous tournament; the World Masters in Casablanca, well
organised but dominated by the Eastern European Block, we had just two fighters
and finally, in November, the Worlds held in Minsk, again a marvellous event
with some excellent matches. My only complaints were: the organisation of the
registration, these are always pandemonium and I have written to FIAS and made
some suggestions; and the events used to have a degree of socialising but this
seems to be neglected.
FIAS and ESF, for the first time, paid for our accommodation, this was
much appreciated and allowed us to bring two good teams to the event. The
highlight of the these events was Matthew Clempner Junior winning a World
Bronze in the O100k class, the first World Championship medal since 1990 a
great finish to the year. Reports on all these can be seen on a web site and
have been published in various Martial Arts Magazine and Web sites.
The BSF have been successful in running courses and competitions
throughout the year but we had a couple of disappointments: the Commonwealth
competition had to be cancelled and this date was taken over by Red Star Sambo,
even this only attracted 30 people and a tournament organised by Bedford
Grappling Academy was also cancelled due to a lack of entries, it seems the
recession is taking its toll especially with the cost of fuel.
The last two British Opens were held in Scotland but it was felt that it
was time to move back to England but not too Sittingbourne, where it had been
for over a decade as this was too far for people to travel, so next year’s
British Open will be in Bedford on 2nd Sunday in June, an
easier venue for people including flights into Luton.
BSF HQ will no longer be supplying Sombo equipment; this has been handed
out to Russell Dodds who has made major inroads in getting different supplies
from around the World. I think one of the best things the BSF has done in recent
years is to insist on correct kit at our events. The BSF looks forward to 2013
but we cannot exist without the support of our members so we do need the
various associations affiliated to push for participation.
Martin Clarke
BSF President
FIAS GrandMaster
For more information on Sambo visit: http://www.britishsombo.co.uk/ Contact Martin Clarke at sombogb@blueyonder.co.uk
