For the second year in the row, Judo has made its presence felt at the Sapper Games. The competition this year show cased the ability of the members of the Corp to step up to any challenge and push through to achieve glory. The event, as last years, was a novice only event, all competitors were required to have little or no Judo experience.
The event took place over two and a half days, with training on the Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday, leading up to the main event on Thursday morning.
Sapper Games 2017
Training was conducted under the watchful eyes of RE Judo coaches, Capt Alex Paske and Capt Ancel Lupke and Bill Tweedie, former Sapper, and very experienced Judoka, all gave up their time to give all participants a crash course in Judo.
With so much to learn, and very little time, Tuesday and Wednesday sessions were very intense. The competitors were shown basic ground work, both hold downs and escapes, basic throwing techniques and different grips. The training was to give all players a good grounding, this helps the fights to be entertaining, but most importantly, safe for all parties.
The competition was team based, with three individuals, each in a different weight class (under 73kg, under 90kg and over 90kg). Each competitor would face there opposite number in a three-minute fight, under the watchful eye of Bill Taggert, National Level Referee, who generously give up his time to ensure all fights fair and legal.
The competition itself was broken down in to a league phase, with the winners and runners-up progressing onto the semi-finals. All competitors fought hard throughout the day, trying to find any weakness to exploit, or using brute force and determination (anyone would think Sappers were fighting!).
With the league stage finally concluded, two teams from 1 RSME Regt (A and B) were drawn to fight in one semi-final, with 32 Engr Regt and 21 Engr Regt fighting in the other. With a place in the final at stake, all competitors, despite having already fought four fights by this stage, went in with determination and a new sense of urgency. Once the dust had settled and the competitors had had a chance to catch their breath, 32 Engr Regt and 1 RSME Regt A, were left standing, ready to face off in the final. With silver wear and pride at stake, both teams went out strong and determined to win, however, there could only be one victor and on this occasion, it was 32 Engr Regt. A well-deserved winning team, who, like everyone else, fought hard and pushed through the inevitable knocks and bruises, but in the end, they remained standing where others had fallen.
​
This event served as an introduction to Sapper and Army Judo and could not have been completed without the hard work of individuals working tirelessly behind the scene, and in front of them, thank you to; Maj Dave Campey RE (Sapper Judo Team Manager), Capt Alex Paske, Capt Ancel Lupke and Bill Tweedie (Coaches), Bill Taggert (Referee), Jon Chesney of Chesney Training Solutions (First Aid Cover and Risk Assessment) and all the competitors who took the jump into Judo.
All those who competed at the RE Games have been invited to represent the Corp, at the upcoming Army Championships in the Novice event, with the skill shown with only a few hours training, the Corp team should put in a powerful side this year and maintain our dominance at the Army Championships.
Sapper Judo was also successful in the Corp Sports award, with Sapper Judo collecting the award for Sports Team of the Year, Maj Dave Campey collecting a very deserved award for Services to Corp Sport, and BSBS Number 1, Capt Alex Paske collecting the Sportsperson of the Year.