End of year Newsletter 2025.
Devizes Mini Mon Competitions
This year, for the first time in the Club’s 68 year history, we held two mini-mon competitions open to young judoka aged 8 to 16 years old. The first one was held on Sunday 25th May and despite being close to a bank holiday was well supported. The second event was held on Sunday 19th October and we had just over 60 entries which was very pleasing, even better was the fact that we had twice the amount of Devizes judoka competing in the second event. These mini-mon events are not the Olympics or the Nationals; they are an entry level competition that absolutely every judoka starts out on. The club and our coaches were extremely proud of every single one of our judoka who braved stepping onto the mat, many for the very first time, and faced an opponent who they had never met before and then proceeded to try to throw them or hold them down. Every fight is a learning experience and every judoka learnt something new during these events. These events do take a lot of time and effort to put on and lots of the work is unseen, for instance, our coach Edward spends over a day for each event sorting out entries, emailing replies to visiting clubs and judoka for any queries and dealing with any last-minute entries. We are enormously indebted to Lisa, Richard and Charis Oram along with Liz Gautieri who travel all the way from Bristol to officiate at our events and donate their time. In return we provide an ample amount of tea, sandwiches and cake in return as well as our gratitude for their service. The mini-mon events also could not be possible without the huge help we get from our members who give up some, and in a lot of cases all, of their Sunday to help out. These mini-mon competitions are now, unfortunately, getting few and far between. We are now the only BJA club in Wiltshire that hosts these sorts of events with the nearest other events being held in Bristol, Kidderminster or High Wycombe. Please continue to support these events.
News from the Mat
The Friday night sessions are going from strength to strength with 20+ judoka regularly on the first and second sessions. There are some very good young judoka coming through which is fantastic news for the future of the club.
The two-hour Monday night session for judoka aged 10 to senior of any age is proving to be a very popular session with a decent average of 20+ judoka on the mat each time. We have judoka on the mat from all walks of life, some are currently serving in the Army or the Police, and some are cross training with us from other martial arts like BJJ. We welcome everyone from absolute novice to Dan grade.
We now have half a dozen of our regular senior players who have competed this year. Olly Daltry and Will Atkins competed in Bristol in the low Kyu event, Dong Nam Chu entered the level 3 event at the Royal Marine headquarters down near Exmouth in Devon and then Sam Bressington, Olly and Mitchell Currie competed in the senior event at Samurai Judo Club in Kidderminster. Jack Raklander has also entered multiple events this year plus picking up points needed to complete his promotion to 2nd Dan. Olly, Dong, Mitchell and Kevin Cleaver all graded to red belt. In a first ever for the club, both Kevin and his daughter Emelia both graded to red belt at the same session.
Razz was awarded his 7th Dan (Nanadan) in July by the International Judo Federation and becomes the highest dan grade in Wiltshire and joint highest in the West Country of England.
(Razz and Ollie Hyde in photo)
Jason Parsons was selected as one of the three Commonwealth judo coaches who will be at next year’s commonwealth games. Ollie Hyde was selected for the England Development squad in December after some very impressive competition results including gold medals at the London schools’ event and the Kent International. Other members of the club like Logan Lewis, Katie Underwood, Archie Creasey-Cottle and Tilly Creasey-Cottle all did very well at competitions all over Britain. Well done to all those young judoka who were awarded the “Judoka of the Week” trophies throughout the year. Keep up the good work. 
At the end of our last training session, we had 119 different judoka on the mat over the year. We missed the pre-pandemic total of 120 set in 2019 by just one judoka! One! You won’t be surprised to hear what one of next year’s goals will be.
Twinning Weekend
The long weekend of the 26th to the 29th of September 2025 saw a team of fine Judoka head off on a mini coach to Portsmouth and hence to Caen with our final destination being Mayenne in France to take part in the Annual Twinning Exchange at Mayenne Judo Club.
On arrival the Devizes travellers (Will, Jack, Razz, Jan (his partner), Ollie, Tilly, Archie, Holly, Blazej, Logan and Sophie were met by their hosts and settled into their accommodation. This was swiftly followed by delivery to the Judo Club for a training session.
Razz did not get the memo and had to suffer the indignity of Champagne and Canapes at a new Hotel. 
After a quick visit to Mayenne centre the Judoka took part in the main Judo session in the Dojo with the usual exchange of gifts. We also had Club President, Roy Chandler who was in Mayenne that weekend, joining us on the tatami (Roy is an Aikido 5th Dan)
(in the photo: Roy, Razz and Mayenne coach, Vincent)
Sunday was definitely for the young people. Paintball in the morning with Go Ape in the afternoon with some seriously big trees. The screams were very audible and were not just from the girls. In the middle of the two sessions we all ate a picnic with Razz and his host Vincent eating Oysters. (Only in France).
That evening meant that we all went to a restaurant in Mayenne where you could fill your plates as many times as you like. Many did. The food was top notch and had an almost endless variety of food. Name it they had it all laid out on the buffet. They even had robot drinks waiters.
Monday it was sadly time to go home and after a delay in Salisbury we all got home tired but happy. It was a fantastic long weekend where new friendships were formed and old ones re-kindled. We look forward to seeing Mayenne Judo when they come to us next summer.
The 2026 Twinning will be held in Devizes in June.
Committee News
At a committee meeting in September, we voted unanimously to raise our mat fees from £20 per month to £25 per month if you do one session per week. We will also raise the two session per week mat fee from £25 to £30 per month. This decision was not taken lightly. We investigated what other similar clubs to ours in a 10-mile radius were charging in mat fees and found that in some cases we were charging 70% less than them plus we also weren’t tying members down to six-month contracts. The price increase will come into effect on 1st January 2026 and will be the first price increase at the Club since the Covid pandemic hit the country almost six years ago. We should also remind everyone that nobody earns a wage or even an honorarium for running Devizes Budo Club (to use our correct name). The coaches that teach you or your children are unpaid volunteers. The entire management committee are also unpaid volunteers – even the people who regularly lay the mats for each session don’t receive anything. Every single penny that is raised by the club in the way of mat fees, donations, sponsorship or even the profit from the mini-mon events is ploughed back into the club to constantly improve ourselves. All our coaches are highly trained people who need to regularly undertake revalidation courses to meet with current British Judo Association guidelines along with mandatory first aid and safeguarding courses. Our Child welfare officers also have to undertake courses and certification to be suitably qualified to meet BJA standards. These courses do come at a cost and your mat fees are designed to cover this. Our ultimate goal, however, is to once again have our own Dojo. Somewhere where we don’t have the constant headache of laying mats before each session and then lifting them again straight afterwards. Whilst we may be in a financially healthy position, we are still a long way off the probable half a million pounds that it will cost to build the new dojo (see Club History 1957 – 2025 for further details). All mat fee prices will now be updated on the website to reflect this new increase that will come into force on 1st January 2026. We thank you for your understanding in this matter but if you have any questions, please email devizesbudo@gmail.com
In July we welcomed Mrs Amanda Molloy onto the committee. Amanda was already a child welfare officer and a very good friend to the club. In November we said goodbye to two long serving committee members; Mr Jerard McKay and Mr Steve Cottle. They were very quickly replaced by Mr Ian Underwood and Mrs Valentina Parsley who were co-opted onto the committee at the next meeting. Ian and Valentina made an immediate impact onto the committee with regards to fundraising and making connections with local businesses. More on that later…………
Evan Molloy
It’s been another eventful, busy year for our own superstar of V.I Judo. In February at the German Open in Heidelberg, Evan started the year with a fantastic gold medal against some very tough competition. In May, Evan won a bronze medal at the IBSA World Championships in Kazakhstan (the first world cup medal in the club’s history!). In August he won a bronze medal at the IBSA Grand Prix in Egypt and in mid-December he won a bronze medal in the IBSA Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, Brazil. If ever there was a sporting success story, then Evan’s transition from someone not allowed to do sport at School, to international judoka, Paralympian and world cup medal winning star, then this is it. We are so proud of him at the club and wish him all the success in the world. If you scroll further down this page you can read all about Evan’s rise to the top in international judo.
And finally…………..
Well done to all the junior and senior judoka who competed at the Devizes Closed event on 19th December. There really was some cracking judo on display and some have already been earmarked as future high-level competitors. If you put the effort in to training at every session and attend every session your judo will naturally evolve. The old maxim of “Train hard – fight easy” is so true.
We held our annual Christmas party on the 20th December where we gave out a few awards to the judoka who raised their head above the parapet over the year. Best female player went to Katie Underwood for not only having a good competitive year on the judo event circuit, but for also her attitude in training. Biggest character on the mat went to Blazej Domaradzki. A few months ago, Blazej started to do the Monday sessions as well as the Friday and proved he is utterly fearless when it comes to doing randori with seniors much bigger, not only in size but also in grade. His character came to the fore on the Mayenne trip, however, where he became a valued club member. Best newcomer went to senior judoka, Mitchell Currie. Mitchell has been with us for around six months now and has even competed at his first judo event where he won gold! He has an extensive BJJ background and has now added judo into the mix. The trophy for “Best Attitude” went to Rex Allen. Rex trains on both the Friday and Monday night sessions plus also does school judo with Will Hickman’s Wiltshire Judo. Rex lives and breathes judo, never avoids an opponent in randori and continually pushes himself. He is an excellent example of how every judoka should be with training. Rose Stockton was given a gold medal for her excellent conduct on the mat during the year, especially when helping the smaller judoka.
A huge round of applause goes to Ian and Valentina who, in a fairly short amount of time, created the biggest raffle probably in the club’s history raising over £300 in the process. The club thanks every business and individuals who very kindly donated prizes. Thankyou to everyone who came to the party, and we hope you all enjoyed yourselves.
As a judo club, we are indebted to our coaches who give up a huge amount of their time over the year, not only at the club but also travelling to events with students to coach them at competitions, so a massive thankyou to Will, Ed, Jason and Razz. A big thankyou also to everyone on the management committee who do so much work behind the scenes that you never see.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our members and friends of Devizes Budo Club.
G
Newsletter: June 2025
The Year so far………..
Welcome to the first club newsletter of 2025. We’ve certainly been busy in the first five months of the year. We kicked off the new year with some very busy sessions on the mat in both the Monday and Friday sessions. We have multiple young judoka on both Friday sessions all pushing themselves for the title “Judoka of the week”, which is great to see. More training partners means more randori means more improvement. In March we had a mixture of juniors and seniors at a competition in Bedminster, Bristol. Ollie Hyde came away with a very good gold medal after winning all three of his fights. Isabel Atkins came away with a bronze with one Ippon and also scored the club’s first Yuko score in 7 years! Will Atkins (Isabel’s dad) was at his very first judo competition and won a fight with a very nice Tai Otoshi. Ollie Daltrey was also at his first senior judo competition and managed to win his last fight with a lovely bit of Kansetsu Waza. Unfortunately, both Will and Ollie were in the biggest groups in the whole competition and finished in a very credible 5th place. In early April another one of our senior judoka, Jack Raklander, won his dan-grade line up at High Wycombe by beating all five opponents by an ippon score. He just needs to do his theory and then he will be promoted to 2nd Dan. Senior Coach, Will Hickman held a very popular Easter Camp at the club which saw 32 young judoka from not only Devizes Judo Club but also from his schools’ judo program in Salisbury, Pewsey, Urchfont and Corsham schools amongst others. Logan Lewis and Katie Underwood both represented the club at competition in Worcester winning a bronze and gold respectively. In early May Lewis won a hard fought for silver at an event ran by Patchway Judo Club. At the same venue there was also an under 8’s festival in which we had two new little warriors step on to the mat for the very first time. They were brothers Ethan and Finn. Ethan won his very first ever competition with an Osoto-Otoshi! Finn won all three of his fights with some lovely throws.
The following day the club was being represented by St. Francis School, Pewsey at a competition in Surrey being held by Core Judo at the IAPS Championships. This is a combined effort with Will Hickman’s school Judo program “Wiltshire Judo” associated with Devizes Judo Club. The final tally was one gold, two silvers and three bronze medals. Finally in mid-May, Ollie Hyde and Tilly Creasey-Cottle finished 5th and 7th respectively in the very tough London Open with both players giving a very good account of themselves. Thankyou to both William and Edward Hickman for giving up their time to coach our judoka at all these events.
AGM.
At the recent annual general meeting we welcomed the members present and updated them on the many issues that face the club. The Chairman, Mr Lawrence Hibberd, gave a talk to those present about the ongoing situation with the proposed new dojo. The bottom line of that issue is that land in the Devizes area is at a premium and the new dojo will cost the best part of half a million. We do have a few irons in the fire with regards to that issue though. The Treasurer, Mr Richard “Razz” Hopkins, gave an upbeat account with regards to our finances and stated that we are in a much better situation than most judo clubs or many other sports clubs. Senior Coach, Will Hickman thanked both Tilly Creasey-Cottle and James Stockton for putting themselves out and helping with some of the coaching on the very busy Friday night sessions. Will also went through all of our various competitive players and detailed their achievements since the last AGM. Ed Hickman went through some impressive statistics at the club over the last year. Our most popular age range is the 10 to 18 age group and our yearly averages on both the Monday and Friday sessions are up from the 2023 figures. In 2024 we had 101 different judoka on the mat which is a massive improvement from when we returned from Covid in 2021 when we had just 41 different people on the mat. Our figures so far this year are showing that we have had 85 different people get onto the mat. We hope to hit 120 by the end of the year which will match the pre-Covid 2019 figure. Our Vice-President, Mr Mark Burbidge closed the annual General Meeting by thanking all the officers and members of the committee along with the many members of the club who put themselves out to help out at competitions and who put so much work into keeping this 68-year-old club going.
Devizes 4th Mini-Mon Competition
We held our 4th Mini-Mon on 25th May, which was a bank holiday weekend. We always knew we may struggle a bit with entries because of people going away on a short holiday but we pushed the competition as much as we could and we were lucky to be supported by the best judo clubs in the region, and we thank them for their participation. Medals were awarded by our own V.I Paralympian and World Championship medal winner Evan Molloy and our own England Head Coach Jason Parsons. The event was again run with the utmost efficiency and even though we had just under 60 entries to compete, we were walking out the door completely finished by 3.30pm. Many thanks to all of our small army of volunteers who not only helped out during the day but also donated loads of raffle prizes. All of this would not happen though if it wasn’t for all our officials, mainly Bristol based, and the local businesses who sponsor our event.
The two main sponsors of the event are:
The Woodland Pizza Kitchen.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1Bx6ajq5tP/
MGS Groundwork Ltd
Other sponsors are:
R Hopkins Accountancy & Taxation Services Ltd
Jeff Marlow Windows Ltd
Orchard Bricklaying
We are already planning our 5th Mini-Mon in October 2025 so watch this space………..
Evan Molloy
In February, Paralympian Evan Molloy won a European Gold medal in the German open in his new under 81kg weight group. In Astana, Kazakhstan. Evan Molloy stand on the edge of the tatami as number one seed in the J2 Under 81 Kilos category in the 2025 IBSA World Championships. J2 is for athletes who have seriously compromised sight whereas the J1 category is for blind Judoka. First up for Evan was Karimjonov from Uzbekistan who presented little in the way of problems to Evan and Evan won. Second fight was Kulmurza from Kazakhstan, new to the category with a strong O Uchi Gari. 30 Seconds into the fight Kulmurza threw Evan for Yuko with O Uchi Gari and then proceeded to do very little else for the rest of the fight. Despite a strong attack rate Evan was unable to get the score back and had to settle to go into the repechage. Third fight was Van Melle from Germany whom Evan despatched again with relative ease. This now set up a contest with Bareikis from Lithuania who had defeated Evan in the previous Grand Prix event. Evan took the fight to Bareikis with some strong attacks the final of which they both ended up in Ne Waza. Evan took his opportunity, strangling his opponent and getting the submission. Evan left the mat knowing that he had the Bronze medal and was promptly thrown by his euphoric coach, Ian Johns. This World Medal is the first for the Club after four other attempts at Junior, Senior and Veteran Levels. Evan competes next in a Grand Prix event in Giza, Egypt in August, quickly followed by the European Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia in September.
Evan is not only a very good judoka, a Paralympian, a World Championship medal winner but he’s also an excellent ambassador not only for Devizes Judo Club but the sport of Judo itself. We, as always, wish him the very best of luck for the future and will be behind him 100%.
That’s all for now folks, until the next time………….
The Chairman’s Note:
Greetings from the Chairman
While trying to assess the high’s and low’s of 2024, the clubs 67th year, I am delighted to find, that overall, there were no lows to recall and only highs to celebrate.
The Club has matured into a well run, well structured organisation bringing weekly fun and education to all who attended, a long way from the flatlining times of the 20/21 pandemic which is now a fading distant memory.
The club is operating like a smooth, well oiled machine. This makes the staging of such enjoyable and respected events like the mini Mon held in October look easy, it’s not, it’s an illusion created by a good team of well seasoned volunteers all pulling in the same direction. The October Mini Mon was not only enjoyed by our club members but by also by judoka from all across the neighbouring counties and it helped promote our reputation for making our judo events listed on the national BJA calendar, as being the dates that all local clubs will be keeping an eye open for.
The club can also celebrate the fact that both Club membership and weekly attendance is on the increase across all age groups and this has shown to create a more vibrant club, a club with a ‘buzz’, which in its self adds to its attraction.
None of the clubs highs have been given to us and success doesn’t come from luck. Our success has come from the hard work and perseverance of the members, volunteers and helpers of the club. However I must mention that while we all try to do our bit, and every bit does help, three of our greatest strengths have been the club’s coaches, Will and Ed who work tirelessly alongside Graham, our club secretary and the cornerstone that ties the club together. My thanks goes to them and also to all the other members and their partners who have fundraised, donated goods or finance to the club and importantly freely given their time.
So with the Club’s renewed vigour, what will 2025 hold for us? Well, building on our success, another Mini Mon is planned for May with thoughts towards yet a further one later in the year being a possibility. The graph of membership and attendance is showing an ascending trend so there is reason to believe the club will have an even bigger buzz next year. As for our plans for a new Dojo, we have had a number of set backs, false starts and ‘knock downs’ over the year and each time we have stood up, brushed ourselves down and started again. It’s now looking like we may have found another life line to pursue our dreams and hopefully some exciting news to share in the second half of next year.
Finally I would like to wish all members and volunteers of the Devizes Budo Club family and your loved ones, a merry Christmas and a Joyous, peaceful and safe new year.
Lawrence (Chairman)
End of year Newsletter 2024.
Devizes Mini Mon Competitions
Our third mini mon event on Sunday 13th October with thirteen different clubs and 68 judoka from all over the south of England was a resounding success – both on and off the mat. The reason this event was a success was not only the way that it was efficiently ran on the day by the qualified officials but by all members of the club who were willing to get stuck in and help out where they could. Multiple families all mucked in and helped with items like carparking, raffles, food counter and entry fees amongst many others. You know who you are, and the club is indebted to you. We have another mini mon at the club organised for Sunday 25th May 2025 and we already have some entries for that. We are hoping that we get more of our young judoka to enter this event to represent Devizes Budo Club. We are also hoping to organise another mini mon event in October as well and it would be good to do two mini mon events a year. This can only be achieved, though, with the help of our members, or club family as we like to call it. These are the only BJA mini-mon competitions that are held in Wiltshire with the nearest other events being held in Bristol, Kidderminster or High Wycombe.
News from the Mat
We are now starting to emerge fully from our post-Covid hangover where the sport of Judo was on hold in Britain for almost 18 months. Unfortunately, a lot of judo clubs closed for good during the pandemic and some since that period where they couldn’t recover enough players to make the club viable. We alone lost 65% of our membership between December 2019 and December 2021. We have, as a club, managed to claw our way back to a healthy membership again through advertising, mainly on social media, and excellent all-round coaching. Since April 2023 we have gone from having an average of 5 people on the mat on the Monday session to consistently having 20+ judoka on the mat. We changed the session slightly in early 2024 to allow judoka aged 10 years to senior to train and we are now seeing parents also getting on the mat to train with their children which is great to see. We also extended the session to two hours long! It’s a proper mixed ability session from novice to Dan grade. On the last Monday session of the year, we had an impressive 33 people on the mat including 7 dan grades. This session was far and away the biggest session since pre-Covid and it was great to see. On the Friday sessions we split the sessions in 2023 to form two distinct age groups and that has gone from an average of 15 judoka to around 40 now. We have a handful of our younger judoka that regularly compete, but we had our first senior competitor in years in early December. After watching his two young sons train during the Friday night sessions, Dong decided to give Judo a go and started to train on the Monday session in early 2024. After many sessions throughout the year training hard and learning various techniques, Dong entered his first competition in Bristol and was cheered on by his family and friends and coached by Will. Once the nerves settled a bit, he promptly smashed his way to a well-deserved gold medal. A fantastic achievement that may spur more of our Monday night seniors into entering the next Bristol competition in March 2025?
Committee News
We now have two qualified Child Welfare Officers at the club, Razz Hopkins and Amanda Molloy, who hold all the relevant British Judo Association certification that is required for that role. We will soon have a third CWO when Mr Jonathan Stockton (father to Alfie, James, Will and Rose) completes his BJA certification. The committee also decided early in 2024 to make sure that every single member of the management committee was also DBS checked. This is a very good advert for the club and shows we take our child welfare role extremely seriously. Our website has also been designed to be as transparent as possible where it comes to coaching qualifications, DBS checks and judo experience of the people involved with teaching judo to your children. Only a very tiny percentage of clubs in Britain actually do this but we also take this very seriously.
Evan Molloy
It’s been an eventful, busy year for our own superstar of V.I Judo. Evan has travelled all over the world in 2024 at training camps and competitions from Japan to Turkey. In April he was selected as Devizes Budo Club’s first ever Paralympian to represent Great Britain in the Paris Paralympics. Despite giving a very good account of himself he unfortunately didn’t win a fight. Since the Paris Paralympic games Evan has moved into the U81kg weight group, which is much more favourable to him, so much so that he won a fantastic gold medal at the Astana Grand Prix in Kazakhstan in November. Evan has already targeted the Los Angeles Paralympic games in 2028 to again fly the flag for Devizes and Great Britain and we all wish him well. Evan Has also been recently promoted to 2nd Dan amongst other accolades. He does try to get on the mat at the club when he can and will be seen to do a bit of randori with the younger members because he started at the club just like them. He is an excellent ambassador for Devizes Budo Club, and we are all very proud of him and what he has achieved.
(if you scroll further down this page, you can see some links to the local newspaper when he was first breaking into the British V.I Squad aged just 14)
And finally…………..
Just a little reminder that everyone involved at the club, from the President to a committee member, is an unpaid volunteer – nobody receives a penny in wages. All the people working away in the background to keep the club running, who you never see, and especially the coaches at the club, some of which are giving up 6 to 7 hours a week each, every week throughout the year, to coach our members are unpaid volunteers. These same coaches also give up their weekends to either coach our members at competitions or to go on courses or revalidate their coaching certificate don’t receive a penny in pay. Every penny that is raised by the club goes toward coaches training, improved facilities and our ultimate aim of a permanent dojo again where we will never have to lift mats before and after a session. Talking of laying mats, we have plenty of help putting away the 144 tatami mats after the session, which is fantastic, but we are still seriously lacking any help putting them out and this is being left to the coaches who get to the club around an hour before the session starts. These 144 mats weigh just over 1.6 tons! Let’s hope that 2025 is another year that Devizes Budo Club makes great strides again in improving membership, more competitors and more medals to show at the end of the year.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all our members and friends of Devizes Budo Club.
G
Quarterly Newsletter October 2024.
3rd Devizes Mini Mon
The third mini mon was contested by 68 Judoka on Sunday 13th October with thirteen different clubs from all over the south of England contesting for the gold medals and the two player of the day trophies. Representing Devizes Budo Club, we had Katie, Sophie, Lewis, Ollie, Noah, Rose & Stanley. It was a first ever competition experience for the last three on that list, so well done to them. Not only did we have a great display of judo from the red to orange belt Judoka, but it was also a really good atmosphere in the hall on the day. It was also like a blast from the past as lots of parents and children from the club got stuck into helping out with the supply and serving of food and drink or for selling raffle tickets, taking entrance money and even spending several hours out in the cold acting as parking attendants. No competition can run without the help of the club members. Steve and Tilly were also excellent as our qualified first aiders. The competition officials and referees definitely deserve a mention for the extremely smooth manner in which they ran this event – starting at 9.30am with the red belt weigh-in and being completely finished and totally cleared away by 3.30pm which is incredibly efficient. Awarding the medals at this event was our own Paralympian, Evan Molloy. It was nice seeing the young judoka from other clubs requesting photos being taken with Evan and also getting him to sign t-shirts for them.
Our proud sponsors for this event are:
Main Sponsors
The Woodland Pizza Kitchen
MGS Groundworks Ltd
We also thank:
R Hopkins Accountancy and Taxation Services Ltd
Andy Vines Plumbing & Heating Ltd
R & GS Hickman Ltd – Building Contractors
News from the Mat
Membership is steadily growing with more and more people getting onto the mat at the various sessions ran at the club. The early session (5yrs to 10yrs) on a Friday night at the end of September saw five new Judoka getting onto the mat for the very first time and we now regularly have 18 to 20 on the first session alone. The Monday night session, which is now two hours long, is also very popular. That session is for judoka 10 years to senior and it’s great seeing some parents getting on the mat with their children. It’s also an absolute bargain for just £5.00 for the whole session!
Further afield, Katie, Logan and Ollie have been winning gold medals at various competitions across the south of England since the last quarterly newsletter and representing the club well. Jason is all over the world as head coach of England Judo visiting places like Portugal and Tajikistan, which apparently has a massive following for Judo. Harvey has also been competing out in Holland.
We now formally have a second Child Welfare Officer at the Club with Amanda Molloy completing all her BJA certification around a month ago. Amanda’s first official duty was at the mini mon event where she looked after the interests of the female competitors. Amanda is a very welcome addition to the team. Amanda’s details can be found on the management committee tab if you need to contact her. We will soon also have a third Child Welfare Officer at the Club once all the certification has been completed.
Paralympics.
It was sadly not to be for our own Evan Molloy at the Paris Paralympics on 7th September 2024. Despite dominating both his opponents and giving a very good account of himself he unfortunately didn’t return with a Paralympic medal. We, as a club, are immensely proud of what Evan has achieved in Judo so far and we will 100% be behind him as he targets the Los Angeles Paralympic games in 2028. They say that only 1 in 10,000 people go on to get their (national grade) black belt but how many of those then go on to represent their country in an event like this? That’s why Evan is one-in-a-million to us.
It’s official! Congratulations to Evan Molloy who has just become Devizes Budo Club’s first ever Paralympian. Starting at the club aged 13, Evan soon progressed onto the Devizes competition Squad and entered competitions all over Britain picking up a lot of medals on his way. He soon progressed to the Great Britain Visually Impaired squad by the time he was 18.
This Gazette & Herald news article from April 2014 (with the cheesy headline!) details the start of Evan’s career as a budding judoka at the club on the cusp of joining up with the national team aged just 14!
JUDO: Great Britain call is Evan sent | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
This article from July 2017 charts his progression:
All of that hard work, countless training sessions, competing all over the planet has now paid off! Next stop, Paris…………..
All the best, Evan. The whole club is totally behind you and you’ve also got 40+ people shouting from matside to cheer you on when hajime is called.
Quarterly Newsletter – June 2024
Steady Improvement
Since the last quarterly newsletter in March, we have continued to show progress with mat numbers and more judoka training at the club. Our average mat numbers have almost doubled on a Monday since March with an average attendance of 19 being recorded in the month of May. Our mean average from both the Monday and Friday night sessions is now 27 judoka which is up from 10 at the same time last year. This is the result of a lot of hard work put in by the coaches and backroom committee members and long may it continue.
Club Matters
In other Club news, Ed Hickman is now a bona fide UKCC level 2 coach after all the paperwork came through from the BJA. Mrs Amanda Molloy is in line to join us soon as our second Child Welfare Officer. At a recent management committee meeting it was decided that all the main committee members should be DBS certificated as standard and this has now been achieved. We felt that this shows a professional commitment towards the safeguarding of children and young adults. Things are also moving in the right direction with regards to the new Dojo although, at the moment, we cannot say too much about it. Watch this space!
Annual General Meeting
Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on 21st May. The elected management committee remains much the same apart from the new addition of Mr Jonathan Stockton to the committee (see Management Committee tab above for more details). Jonathan has four children on the mat so has been doing his bit to bolster the membership for a few years now. We welcome him to the committee. Other notable points from the AGM is that Will Hickman has been elected as “Senior Coach” at the club. In the annual prize giving, the Harry “Tubby” King Cup, which has been awarded for 53 years at the Club was this year given to Mr Harvey Creasey-Cottle for “Outstanding Achievement in Judo (male)” and the Roy Chandler trophy for “Outstanding Achievement in Judo (female)” went to Miss Katie Underwood. The “Highest Medal” shield was again awarded to Mr Evan Molloy after winning several European bronze medals. Leading us nicely onto our current Devizes Judo superstar, Mr Evan Molloy. An official announcement will be made in the next few weeks regarding Evan’s Paralympic qualification.
Twinning
On the 8th of July, 9 young Judoka and 2 Leaders will be taking the Ferry from Portsmouth to Caen and onwards to Mayenne, the twin town of Devizes for a week’s stay in this beautiful part of Brittany. Apart from the daily Judo session, participants will be taking part in a variety of recreational activities, visits to St. Malo and Mont St. Michel and finding out about a different culture alongside other Judoka from France, Italy and Ireland. The visit will also include Bastille Day celebrations in the twin town on the 14th of July the day before we all return home.
School Judo Program
The school judo program ran by Will Hickman’s “Wiltshire Judo” is continuing to do very well teaching judo in eight different schools with more on the horizon. Will is holding a two-day summer training camp at the club in July (date to be finalised) for the 5-to-13-years old age group. The training camp starts at 9am and runs until 3pm on both days with a competition on the last day. The children attending will not only be from Devizes Judo but also from the multiple schools that Will teaches at so there will be plenty of training partners and new friends. Fundamentals of Judo, newaza and tachiwaza techniques and an introduction into competitive Judo will be some of the curriculum that will be covered. If you have a child that wishes to join the summer camp please contact willhickman5@gmail.com for further details.
Fundraising
The recent fundraiser held on 18th May where a sponsored 20 mile walk was held has raised in excess of £800 for the club. Many thanks to all who sponsored this walk and to Donna & Will Hickman who walked from the Barge at Honey Street, Pewsey Vale to the Barge at Bradford on Avon – just under 21 miles in 6hrs 35 minutes. They were joined on the walk by a dozen or so other people who kindly walked sections of the canal with them. We are always looking for new and unique ways to raise money for the club so if you have any ideas please let us know.
Competition
We have now got our tournament Licence from the BJA with regards to our third Devizes Mini-Mon event which is going to take place on Sunday 13th October at Silverwood School. Last year’s event was very well attended by multiple clubs around the area. This year, however, we will be having up to the maximum 75 competitors. It’s a perfect competition for young judoka to start their competitive judo career on.
The listing for the event can be found here:
https://www.britishjudo.org.uk/event/l1-devizes-budo-club-mini-mon/
Monday Night Judo
Our Monday night Judo session is, as mentioned above, getting quite popular. We are now having several parents of children on the mat putting on a judogi and joining in with training sessions. We take children from 10 years old to senior on the Monday night session (6.30pm to 8pm). The sessions normally entail a bit of a warm-up, usually a game, a few circuits to raise a sweat and then some technical work followed by some randori (free practice). It’s a very friendly environment so if any senior, male or female, wants to have a go they would be most welcome – the first session is always free and we can sort you out with kit. It’s great for self-defence and will get you fit!
Mats!
Having larger numbers on the mat means we are now putting out a much larger mat area to enable this sort of training so if anyone is free on a Monday evening (around 6.00pm) or a Friday evening (around 5.30pm) the coaches on the mat would be very grateful if someone were to help lay out the mats with them (normally takes 30 minutes or less depending on how many turn up).
That’s it until the next newsletter but keep an eye on the Facebook page for up-to-date news at the club.
G
Here’s some interesting old links from the BJA and the local Gazette & Herald newspaper regarding the Budo Club
From 2019: Devizes schoolgirl wins first young citizen award | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2018: Plans to knock down Budo Club | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2017: Devizes Budo Club Holds Annual Club Exchange – British Judo
From 2017: Devizes Budo Club enjoying life at new temporary home | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2017: Budo club floored by generosity of runner and cyclists | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2017: Devizes Budo Club celebrates its 60th anniversary | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2016: Jasmine joy at England Cadet call | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2016: Ben and Max lead the Devizes medal surge | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2016: JUDO: England call for Benjamin | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2016: Richard Hopkins gains national recognition | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2016: Devizes Budo club’s Max Major shines at national championships | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2015: JUDO: Devizes coaches take top gong | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2015: Fundraiser collects thousands for Devizes Budo Club’s new home | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2015: Devizes Budo club to host 24 hour endurance fundraiser | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2015: Parents of Devizes Olympic judo ace go on run to fund road to Rio | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: JUDO: Jemima’s golden comeback | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Tom’s games boost | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: JUDO: Funds are Florida key for Jemima | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: Club rose from ashes of blaze | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Reed to battle for gold in Glasgow | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Tom’s chance arrives | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: Devizes Budo Club could be on the move | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: JUDO: Great Britain call is Evan sent | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: JUDO: Adam thrilled to go on national service | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2014: JUDO: Devizes club toasting a vintage year | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2013: Hi-tech aid for Devizes martial arts fans | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2013: JUDO: Belgian bronze is a boost for Ellen | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2013: Cash landed for new crash pads in Devizes | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2012: Wiltshire heroes honoured at Sport Awards | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2012: WILTSHIRE SPORTS AWARDS: Easton promise is a winner for Lavis | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2012: JUDO: Elliot’s classy performance | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2012: JUDO: Tom’s medal aim | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2011: JUDO: Jemima lands national squad place and funding boost | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2011: JUDO: Age no barrier as Jemima bags a silver | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2011: JUDO: Cup is the next Port of call for Jemima | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2011: JUDO: Gold standard at Devizes club event | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2011: JUDO: Jemima lands Sheffield prize | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2010: JUDO: That’s my girl, Jemima | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2010: JUDO: Reed plays down world pressure | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2010: JUDO: Jemima’s Euro Dream | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2009: JUDO: Amy leads medal charge | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2009: Jemima fights her way into GB plans | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2009: Devizes town’s stalwarts to receive civic awards | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2009: Reed’s 2012 hopes boosted by award | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2008: Aikido champions at Devizes | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2008: Exchange weekend proves a hit | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2008: Reed bags judo silver | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2008: Devizes judo medal haul | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2007: 50 years on the mat | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2006: The youth of today | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2002: Best ever year for club | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
From 2000: Tucker returns home with medal | The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald
Quarterly Newsletter – March 2024
We’ve had a busy time so far on the mat with numbers steadily climbing each month. Both the Monday and Friday night sessions are almost double the numbers in attendance to what it was this time last year. We have had 48 different judoka on the mat so far this year, only 22 behind last year’s total and we still have nine months to go yet! We have also had our biggest session of the year since 2019 with 35 judoka attending the Friday night session. Long may this trend last!
The Schools judo program ran by Will Hickman’s “Wiltshire Judo” is doing very well. Will is now teaching Judo in five different schools during eight sessions with 120 children, and the numbers are increasing weekly. Will is holding an easter training camp at the club on 10th April for the 5-to-13-years old age group. The training camp starts at 9am and runs until 3pm. Fundamentals of Judo, newaza and tachiwaza techniques and an introduction into competitive Judo will be some of the curriculum that will be covered. If you have a child that wishes to join the easter camp please contact willhickman5@gmail.com for further details.
The annual general meeting is on Tuesday 21st May at Devizes Town hall at 8pm. Every single member/parent/guardian is invited to attend this important meeting. You will get to meet the team behind the scenes at Devizes Budo Club and have an update on the latest plans for our new dojo.
Flying the International flag for Devizes Judo is Evan Molloy. So far this year Evan has had judo training camps in multiple countries and competed in the German Grand Prix where he picked up an admirable 5th place finish which all helps towards selection of the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. I’m sure I speak for everyone at Devizes Budo Club when I say that we are all 100% behind him for a chance to compete in the most prestigious competition of them all. He is a success story from the time he first set foot in the old club to where he is today and an inspiration to all our young aspiring judoka.
On the coaching front at the club:
Edward Hickman has completed his UKCC level 2 coaching course which was over three weekends in St. Albans, Hertfordshire. Ed is now just waiting on the all-important certificate! Harvey Creasey-Cottle, one of our UKCC level 1 coaches, started his judo journey when he was 4 years old with School judo then was invited to join Devizes Judo club when he was 6 after School summer camp. He worked his way through the mons/belts until he gained his 1st Dan (black belt) when he was just 17. He has now gone on to become a full-time judo athlete with Team Bath, at the same time as studying for his degree in sports management and coaching. He has represented Devizes, Western area and Team Bath all over the country, including abroad. His next up and coming competition is the Northern Ireland open this April. Another of our coaches, Jason Parsons, a UKCC level 5 coach, has been England head coach since November 2022, working predominantly with Cadets (-18) and Juniors (-21). Regularly travelling round Europe on the EJU Cadet and Junior tours. Highlights of the last 12 months are: European Youth Olympic Festival in Maribor, Slovenia. Cadet European Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. Junior European Championships in The Hague, Netherlands and Junior World Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. It’s good to know that Devizes Judoka are in good hands with an absolute wealth of coaching experience and knowledge.
Fundraising has been a continual process for the club since it’s creation in 1957 with the need to constantly improve itself. Since March 2017 we have not had a dojo which we can call “ours”. There are plans afoot where a new dojo is concerned, and the forthcoming AGM is the best place to hear about that but in the next quarterly newsletter there will no doubt be an update. There is a fundraising sub-committee at the club and if you think you have some new and interesting ideas we would very much welcome them, along with any new members to this sub-committee. One such fundraiser is taking place in May (date to be agreed) where a sponsored walk from the Barge Inn at Honey Street (Pewsey Vale) to the Barge Inn at Bradford on Avon via the canal towpath. This walk is around 20 miles long and would take approx. 7 hours to complete. A fundraising page would be set up for this event and any sponsorship would be very much welcomed. You could also either join in and do the whole walk with us or do sections of the walk with as much, or as little, mileage as you could manage. More details of this would be posted in the next few weeks.
That’s it until the next newsletter but keep an eye on the Facebook page for up-to-date news at the club.
G
News hot off the press!!
The Club’s AGM will be held at Devizes Town Hall on 21st May 2024 and will start at 8pm. Please put the date in your diary and attend this very important meeting.
Competition Events:
A full list of suitable competitions that are available up to Orange belt has been compiled and will be at the club for collection on 12th January 2024. If you wish to be emailed a copy then please email devizesbudo@gmail.com
End of year newsletter (and almost as long as War & Peace!)
Please save the date!
The Devizes Judo Christmas party and Awards night will take place on 21st December……watch this space, details to follow.
Please visit us on Facebook for up to date information news. https://www.facebook.com/Devizes-Judo-Club-122207401145493/
Upcoming Events
11th Western Area & England Judo Summer International Camp – 2nd August 2020 – 6th August 2020
at Kingsley School, Bideford
