FIVE NATIONS – BERLIN (APRIL 2006)

The usual early Friday morning start, signalling another foray into Europe, but this time everyone actually arrived at Stansted Airport at the designated hour, which was a miracle in itself. Even Brian was not to be seen at the opposite end of the terminal with a quizzical look on his face, totally lost. Some of us had been to Berlin before for a Five Nations competition, so this time we decided to do something other than sightseeing.

We consequently found ourselves at a bowling alley on the outskirts of Berlin at about 9 am. The owner of the establishment only deigned to converse with us once he had finished breakfast, whereupon we had an eight lane bowling alley all to ourselves. Putting on those trendy bowling shoes got us all in the mood and choosing the ball which suited each of us best was as seriously undertaken as selecting the appropriate shinai. Honda Sensei was the dark horse and came out top on points, although he complained the next day of a sore right arm. He said this was a good sign because it meant he used more of his left hand doing kendo. I said he should have chosen a lighter ball like me. The amount of noise Gibbo made was, needless to say, totally disproportionate to his skill in the alley. When it came to paying, Brian was short of change so he put a note into a machine expecting to shortly hear the clink of coins. Instead, a pack of cigarettes mysteriously appeared. Again, that quizzical look. Brian was even more upset when Will, that connoisseur of all things healthy, declined to buy the cigarettes off him. Too strong apparently. Needless to say Gibbo, ever conscious of the feelings of those around him, teased Brian mercilessly about this understandable mistake the whole weekend. We then decided to visit Berlin zoo where some people felt more at home than others. I wondered if some of us should have been behind the bars what with all the strange noises we made and antics we got up to.

Having had to wait ages at an airport for the Finnish team to arrive, we didn’t arrive at the competition venue until about 9.30 pm that evening, whereupon we had a quick dinner and straight to bed. The teams were all split up and Andy and I had to share a room with two young Germans. One of them turned on his ghetto blaster just as I was getting into my bunk bed. What a great end to the day, I lamented. Needless to say he fell asleep with the music still blaring away. I gracefully descended the bunk bed ladder in the pitch dark and pressed every button on the machine. The cacophony of sound eventually ceased. I only prayed that I’d broken the machine, for good, in the process.

The team competition took place the next morning. We had a gentle start to the day….we were first up against the German A team (they had two teams – the prerogative of the host nation I presumed). We unfortunately got off to a dreadful start with our first two fighters losing 2-0. It was consequently an uphill struggle after that and we were unable to make up the deficit. It showed us that we have still not overcome the problem of being slow starters and it is something we will have to rectify before the next major competition. On a personal level, however, I was fairly happy as it was the first time I have fought the German captain without ending up flat on my back. My record is three or four times in a fight against him at one European championships in France!

Our next fight was against Sweden who we beat quite easily. Our first two fighters, Andy and Brian, got us off to a much better start, Will was solid at chuken and then Gibbo and I finished the fight off as fukusho and taisho respectively. In Gibbo we know that we have someone who can take two points easily, so our task is to make sure that the outcome of the match is not decided before it is the turn of taisho to fight. We fought Switzerland straight after the lunch break and I think we were a little bit complacent as we have never lost to them before. I also had a disastrous fight, losing 2-0, and despite Gibbo winning 2-0, we only ended up drawing with them. We next fought Finland who have done exceedingly well in competitions of late. All the members of their team, while not individually spectacular, consistently put in solid performances and this seems to be the key for doing well in competitions. We, on the other hand, have been too erratic in the past! In the end, it was still a close match against Finland but we were bested when Gibbo lost 1-0 to Frey, who is a 6th dan who has been representing Finland for as long as I can remember.

Our last team fight was against the German B team. The outcome of the match was decided in our favour in the fukusho fight which made a nice change, so Gibbo could just go out and enjoy his fight as taisho. He beat his German opponent, who came 3rd in the previous European Championships, 2-0 with ease. Again it was frustrating to think if only we had not been half asleep when we fought the German A team or if we only we had fought the German A team last instead of first. However, we should all have learnt by now that you don’t get second chances at this level and at the World Championships in Taiwan in December this will be even more the case. Once all the points had been tallied up, the result was Finland in first place, Germany A in second, Great Britain in third, Sweden in fourth, Switzerland in fifth and Germany B in sixth place. We were only one point behind Germany A.

The individual competition was strict this year as only one person from each pool went through to the knock-out stage. Gibbo did the best out of the GB men and Frankie out of the GB ladies. Gibbo was winning his fights with ease until the semi-finals. His opponent was an extremely tall Swiss person who Gibbo had beaten pretty comfortably 2-0 in the team competition. So we were all rather surprised when the Swiss chap scored a kote on Gibbo immediately after hajime was shouted and, no matter what Gibbo tried, he could not score a point back. However, I’m sure it will be Gibbo’s day one day very soon! The German captain, who won the last European Championships, took first place.

All in all, I was happy with the team results. We were up one place from last year and could very easily have been in second place if only we had not got off to such a terrible start. Another lesson learnt! We also showed improvement on a technical level. Will scored beautiful men-kaeshi-do and so did Gibbo, which was the first time for the latter in shiai and a feat he was very proud of! Brian is popping up with some great tsuki to add to his speedy tobi-komi-men cuts, while Andy is looking more and more at home in the position of senpo. Even better, I don’t think anyone, either ladies or men, stepped out the area once during the whole day of shiai. I think we also showed more tactical awareness, with all of us now realising that we have to adjust our style of kendo depending on the points situation at the time we enter the shiai-jo to fight. We were also all very grateful that John, Paul and Kazuyo made it out to the competition and refereed all day long as sometimes the refereeing can be a bit dodgy at this competition. It also meant that Honda Sensei did not have to referee and could devote his time to watching us fight instead (and no doubt gain a few white hairs in the process!).

On Sunday morning we did keiko under the instruction of some Sensei from Japan who were at the competition as they would be teaching at the gashuku for the German team which was due to start on the Monday. In the early afternoon we were able to do keiko again, but this time under the instruction of the Finnish coach who is from the Japanese police since the other Japanese Sensei went sight-seeing. We were also able to do jigeiko with the members of the other five national teams which is one of the best aspects of this whole weekend. Often one is left thinking after jigeiko, how on earth did I lost to him/her in my shiai yesterday!

At the airport on Sunday evening we were finally able to tuck in to some German sausages and they were great! Gibbo and Will decided to wash them down with German beer. Gibbo was given the responsibility of buying the beer, but when he poured it out, it was pink! I’m sure that’s the last time Will will delegate such an important task (well, to Gibbo at least!).

The attendance at squad training in terms of numbers has been fantastic over the last few months and long may it continue. Often the numbers drop a little when the team has been selected, but this has not been the case at all so far. I believe that this says a great deal about the squad set-up at the moment and the quality of instruction during the squad training weekends. People come on a regular basis not only from Scotland but from Switzerland too! Despite it feeling as if the World Championships in Glasgow were only a little while ago, it will soon be Taiwan’s turn to host the World Kendo Championships. Roll on December!

Anthony Scott

Women’s Report

Friday morning saw us gathered at Stansted for our usual early morning start, which was even earlier for Kim and Jane who had to travel down from the North the night before and camp out at Costa Coffee. However, we made it to Berlin to be met by the chirpy face of Ralph Lehman and an excellent bowling plan of Gibbo’s. Kim proved herself to be a secret bowling whiz and completely beat the rest of us – slightly worrying as she started the day by saying that she wasn’t very good and that her Gran could beat her. Some of us found it difficult to keep to our own lanes so perhaps it was just as well that we were the only ones there. Oh well, the snazzy shoes made up for it all. Unfortunately even we couldn’t make bowling last all day, which revealed the vital flaw in our plan – we didn’t actually know where we were. However, after stopping random strangers in the street and pointing plaintively at our maps we finally caught the Metro into town and to the centre for lunch. Spurning the architectural delights of Berlin we went to the zoo in the afternoon – pretty much home-from-home for some. And whilst there was some confusion as to what was a giraffe and what was a zebra a good time was had by all.

Having had to wait for the remaining members of the Finnish and Swedish team to arrive and buoyed up by coffee and pretzels we reached the venue late in the evening with time just to sort out our rooms, grab a bite to eat and finalise warm-up times for the next day.

Our first match was against Germany, a slightly daunting proposition as they are last year’s European champions. However we put up a gutsy performance and it wasn’t a complete whitewash and I was pleased that I was able to score against their Taisho.Then came Sweden against whom we drew on matches but lost by one point. The team fought well with several important draws and we learnt from this match the importance of not losing points as well as the importance of winning them. By this point it seemed we were on a bit of a roll, and after a reluctant break for lunch we met Switzerland with each of my team mates comprehensively beating their opponents 2-0. This high scoring match played an important part in our overall position and I was pleased to see the confidence which everyone gained from each successive win and the sense of team-ship it built. Our final match was against Finland – again another close match which although we didn’t win we had opportunity to do so. Overall we came third which we were very pleased with – we learnt a lot about tactics and in particular the importance of not losing points and of keeping to a draw when needed. This was an extremely positive experience and I was really impressed by Jane and Karen for whom this was their first experience of fighting in an International competition. Both showed what they could do especially when they were supported by their team mates. It also gave team members the opportunity of fighting in different positions which helped build understanding of the role and importance that each position holds.

Later in the afternoon, came the individuals. Frankie showed her usual magnificent timing with nuki-Men which saw her through to the next round – although in one shiai she did end up winning 4 points before the referees decided she’d won. Kim pulled off a wonderful gyaku-do but was unfortunate to meet Fadai (the eventual winner), whilst Jane saw off her Swedish opponent who was extremely feisty and broke her shinai (much to Jane’s annoyance) and Karen showed us her strong, straight Kendo. It was really great that Kazuyo could join us, even though she had to also referee she found plenty of time to give us helpful feedback to help us improve and maintain focus on what we had to do. There were few mistakes – only one person (me!) stepped out of the area and the opportunity to see other women fight at such a high level was both educational and inspiring. Each of us came away with things that we know we must work upon as individuals and as a group we must build upon our strengths to support one another. This competition was a fantastic start to the hard work that needs to be put in before the World Championships.

Many thanks to Kazuyo for making the journey out and to the BKA for supporting us.

Alex Burch