2005 Events Record

End-of-Year festivities

Darren’s bucks party started with a bang with a balloon-popping free-for-all jekeiko, won by Martino. The afternoon followed with go-carting, BBQ, Civic pub, beer, Turkish banquets, beer, back to Civic pub for more beer; and concluded at the casino, with beer. A similar pattern resulted after the wedding, except that Agent Hill attracted more notice from the Casino security on the subsequent occasion.

Donnie Darko meets Pokemon?

The club held a grading on Saturday, 10th December, for which all candidates were successful. The results are:

Back row: Darren Boyd, Tony Pollock, Greg Wyncoll, Phil Baker, Mal Schultz, Joe Semmler, David Cunningham, Ian Flint, Doniel Benson, Norman Oelkers, Martino Ellero. Front row: Owen Horobin, Sharyn Wragg, Gaye Horobin, Michael Maddern, Timmy Kusa, Brendan Kee, Reika Kawajiri.

Post-grading celebrations were held at Ian’s house, with a happy combination of great food, drink, sun, company, and backyard cricket.

Canberra-Nara Candle Festival

On 22 October 2005 , the ANU Kendo Club performed two demonstrations of kendo at the Canberra-Nara Candle Festival.

Rain earlier in the day had turned the grass of the martial arts demonstration area into a wet and slippery surface so caution was essential. Most of the first demonstration took place in a light shower and it was cut short when the rain became too heavy.

The rain had stopped by the time of the second demonstration and the group of 8 kendoka again showed the crowd kiri-kaeshi, men, kote, do, tsuki, uchi komigeiko and jigeiko. Two shiai were held with Darren and Martino then Bec and Sinji putting on an excellent display of kendo in difficult conditions.

After the demonstrations, ANUKC members enjoyed the festival,sampling some Japanese foods and beers before viewing the 2000 candles that were set out in Canberra-Nara Park.

Participants (L to R):
Rebecca Marshall, Norman Oelkers, Martino Ellero,Steve Ellis, Reika Kawajiri, David Cunningham, Darren Boyd, Joe Semmler, Not shown: Sin-ji Jung, Brendan Kee.
Photos: Rocco Weglarz.

Kendo Summer School

Phil Baker was chosen to attend the Kendo Summer School in Saitama, Japan, July 2005. An extract of his report is below:

THE 2005 30th FOREIGN KENDO LEADERS SUMMER SEMINAR

After arriving at Tokyo on a very wet and humid day I found myself an affordable hotel about 2 hours from Kitamoto where the seminar was to be held. I was glad to have a chance to rest before the start of a big week of kendo training. The next day I made my way to Ueno station to catch a train to Saitama. I was relieved to see a group of foreigners carrying bogu and shinai at Ueno station and I was completely sure I was at the right place….read full report

Founder’s Weekend

It was another 5am departure for the ANUKC members’ annual pilgrimage to the Founder’s Weekend, held this year at the Hornsby PCYC 13-14 August, but Founder’s was again strongly represented by the ACT with eleven attendees. Club members benefited greatly from Saturday’s grading, waza and shimpan seminars, and again all grading candidates were successful. They were:

Beer flowed that night.

Sunday’s competitions saw our kyu team (Adam, Nathan, Minh, Darren and Ian), rise to the challenge, displaying excellent kendo and narrowly missing out on progressing to the next round in an exciting pool. Ian was a model taisho, fighting out his second match despite having his toe badly broken. Thanks go to Mal for escorting Ian to hospital.

Kata competitions were introduced this year, and Darren and Adam (kyu), Sharyn and Martino (dan) took part, doing well but not progressing out of the pool.

The women’s team (Sharyn, Sin-ji and Lin) progressed from the semi with outstanding performances by Sin-ji and Lin, and won the final in a decisive 6-0, the first ACT women’s team win for many years.

The dan team (Martino, Sharyn, Sin-ji, Darren, Joe) exhibited some determined kendo but went down 2-1 matches in a knock-out pool.

To top off a great weekend; Fighting Spirit awards were awarded to:

Sin-ji (the John Butler Award for Excellence in Kendo) and:

Joe (Sensei Award)

Photos:
Above: ANU Womens team: Sharyn Wragg, Sin-ji Jung, Lin-fang Wu, and supporter Lyma Balderama.

Left: Team ANU: Lyma Balderama (supporter & ex-member), Tuan-Minh Hyunh, Lin-fang Wu, Master Choi (Han Rim Won) Sin-ji Jung, Nathan Hill, Martino Ellero, Sharyn Wragg, Joe Semmler, Darren Boyd, Adam NcNeil. Absent (but present in spirit): Ian Laird, Malcom Schultz.

The ANUKC wishes to thank Darren for organising the ACT-end of proceedings (and to congratulate him on attaining shodan!), and also thanks the organisers of the Founder’s Cup for a great weekend. And we wish Ian’s toe a speedy recovery!

– Sharyn Wragg

8th Korean Kumdo Championship

The ANU Kendo club participated in the 8th Korean Kumdo Championship on Saturday 14th May at Macquarie University in Sydney, with members competing or refereeing in most of the competitions. About 100 competitors from seven clubs enjoyed a very well-run tournament and we thank the organisers and sponsors.

Congratulations to Adam McNeil (ANUKC) who won the kyu grade individual competition adding to his recent first place in the National Kendo Championship. Kirby Smith (UNSW club) also added to his National Kendo Championship, winning the dan individual competition. Martino Ellero (ANUKC) fought on despite a shoulder injury to take third place in the dan individual competition.

Of the eight ANUKC competitors in the individual competitions, four made it to the second round or further. Phong Le and Minh Hyunh performed outstandingly in their first tournament. Phong progressed to the second round with two convincing wins and Minh narrowly missed out on reaching the second round after replaying his first pool which was tied on points.

The ANU club fielded a team in the kyu teams competition and won the first round against Sydney University 3-1 but lost the semi-final against the HanRimWon club 2-1. MooDoKwon won the kyu team competition and the combined team of Sydney University and University of Technology won the dan team event.

Following the presentation ceremony, the ANUKC delegation moved on to the nearest pub for a celebratory dinner. For full competition results, see http://www.nswkendo.org/results/2005KumdoChampionships.htm

Photos:
ANU kyu team: Adam McNeil, Darren Boyd, Stephen Ellis, Phong Le and Taun-Minh Hyunh.

ANU team celebrating after the tournament: Clockwise from left – David Cunningham, Reika Kawajiri, Phong Le, Martino Ellero, Adam NcNeil, Darren Boyd, Tuan-Minh Hyunh, Stephen Ellis and David Huang.

– David Cunningham

Kendo Demonstration: Saturday 14th May, 2005, ANU.

A big thank you to Phil, Sharyn, Rebecca, Lin, Norman and me (of course). The demonstration was well received and liked by the convention attendees that saw. The original idea was to have the demo just outside the manning Clark building, but was later changed to inside the building on the carpet.

Trying to announce that the demo was starting was non eventful, as the PA was missing the mic. And when they did get the mic, the PA was not working. Because of limited space, we had to scare off Madma’s (DVD business) customers. The look on the guys face was priceless, then Phil said it would only be for 10 minutes he seem to calm down a bit.

The demo started off with Phil and Sharyn doing the fist 5 kata. While they where doing that, the rest of us done our men and got ready for the demo. The format was one set of Kirikaeshi each, Taitari exercises, then 5 aimen. After that, Rebecca and Lin had a short shiai then Norman and I did the same.

Feed back form the organisers was they were very pleased with the demo; it attracted a fair few spectators. They would also like to thank the ANU Kendo club for supporting the event again by giving a demonstration.

Thank you
Nathan

Australian National Championships

The 30th Australian National Kendo Championships were held in Canberra over the Easter weekend of 26th & 27th March 2005. The event was hosted by the ANU Kendo Club in association with the Australian National University (ANU) Sports and Recreation Centre.

The competition was preceded by a Kendo seminar and grading. HE Ambassador Mr Ueda formally opened the Kendo Seminar on Wednesday 23 March. Participants included members from the New Zealand Kendo Federation, New Caledonia Kendo Association and Singapore Kendo Association as well as participants from all over Australia.

Over 120 competitors made up the very strong field of representatives from each state of Australia. Many of the competitors were vying for position on the Australian National Team who will challenge at the 2006 World Kendo Championships to be held in Taiwan.

Results:		Winner
		Open Individual: Women’s Individual: Kyu Individual: Veterans Individual:	Mr Kirby Smith (NSW) Ms Kate Sylvester (VIC) Mr Adam McNeil (ACT) Mr Ken Okomoto (QLD)
		Open Teams: Womens Teams: Kyu Teams: Kata Teams:	Queensland Victoria Victoria Queensland
		For more detailed results, visit these links:
		Individuals (Kyu, Veterans pdf) Individuals (Open, Womens pdf) Teams and Fighting Spirit Awards (pdf)
Veiw images of the National Championships & associated events on our photo galleries.

The All Japan Kendo Federation (AJKF) supported the event by sending three high ranking instructors to assist with the seminar, as well as undertaking a grading to senior Dan ranks. The delegation included Mr. Hidetoshi MIYAGAWA, 61, Kendo Kyoshi 8 dan, Mr. Akira MATSUI, 61, Kendo Kyoshi 8 Dan, Mr. Ken’ichi KURIHARA, 56, Kendo Kyoshi 8 Dan.

The event proved to be a tremendous success resulting from the hard work of the ANU Kendo Club members and the valuable support provided by the Australian Kendo Renmei (AKR) AJKF, and Embassy of Japan.

More information regarding Kendo in Australia can be found on the Australian Kendo Renmei’s Web site: http://www.kendoaustralia.asn.au/
Link to an article on the 30th Australian National Kendo Championships on the Embassy of Japan website.