WKA Wales International Fight Night, Glynneath, Wales
3rd February
Hosts Rhidian and Julie Hayes.

The team of 23 left Scotland at 7.00 am from Strathclyde Park, the team were all very smart looking the part with their Team Scotland tracksuits and body warmers.

On arrival in Glynneath, Rhidian opened the doors of his training school for us and they had prepared food for the Scotland Team, this was much appreciated as we had been travelling since 7am and it was now 4.30pm, thanks WKA Wales.

The event commenced with Nathan Town's fantastic performance against the superb Welsh fighter Luke Scully, Nathan scored with some excellent kicks but Luke worked his hand techniques to win by a single point. Next up was big brother Aaron who superbly picked the points against his opponent Joshua Billen for the first win for Team Scotland.

Next 2 fights were very successful for Team Scotland, with Brianna Walker winning against a taller more aggressive opponent and despite taking a heavy knock early on won with style, using her side kick to good effect. Scott Allan also marched on in style with an aggressive start, finishing his worthy opponent Lee Marshall with clinical precision.

Two of the new girls on the Team Nicole Gormley and Samantha Allan were outstanding, although the girls did not win, they were excellent ambassadors for Scotland, and realise that to be the very best will take a lot of hard work. More wins for Scotland, Sam Allan and Ryan Lyall were up doing what they do best beating top class opponents in the point and light contact divisions, both fighters showed maturity beyond their years, these are two very good results against very good opponents.

The break was highlighted with an excellent freestyle Bo form by Aaron Towns which went down well with the Glynneath crowd. Scott Lyall, David McAlpine and John Dixon fought magnificently for team Scotland by fighting twice narrowly being beaten but showing true Scottish fighting spirit, William Wallace and Natasha Walker also performed well being beaten by a single point in both occasions, John Dixon's second fight with Ryan Parry was an absolute corker with John as usual putting pressure on James Parry from the start unfortunately the fight was stopped due to an injury, an unlucky result for John.

Stuart Hutson went to work in style with a great win showing great control in the second round to avoid further injury to his opponent next up for Scotland was the Coach brought the scores level for the final bout of the day, a British Title for Andrew McCracken against James Parry, although giving away almost 20kg Andrew had his opponent on the rack for most of the fight and was beaten by a single point to a very worthy opponent, this was point fighting at its very best, with the Welsh crowd making the atmosphere unforgettable .

To put this Scotland performance into perspective most of the Welsh team won the Grand Finals in the Welsh Open Championships which were held on the Sunday against the very best competitors in Wales and England, this Welsh Team was top flight opposition who compete regularly on the English circuit and I believe to achieve this level of performance so early in the year is absolutely fantastic and a credit to the dedication and commitment of the Team.

A big thank you also to all the parents who supported this Team.

Thanks for the great performance.

Robert A Smith
Chief Instructor
Temple Institute of Martial Arts
WKA Scotland.