DARWEN'S oldest karate club has held its first ever junior championship at its newest branch.

While Tower Shukokai was established in 1987 its Edgworth School branch only opened its doors a year ago - so this was the first chance for youngsters to experience competition karate.

Andy Allwood, who is the founder member of Tower Shukokai, refereed the event along with Martyn Skipper and ensured fair play was the order of the day.

First event was mixed individual Kata which is the Japanese name for the prearranged sequences of movements that represent real battles from history and are designed to practice core skills of karate.

The winning performance must show correct posture, attitude, concentration and accuracy of form - and that is exactly what nine-year-old James Bennett achieved.

Bill Yarwood, eight, was runner-up with Ben Comer, nine, and seven-year-old Chirs King in joint third place.

Next up was the Kumite, a sparring event where competitors have to score points according to the level of difficulty of the technique.

Tower Shukokai is proud of its female membership and the display of tenacity and skill in the girls' final proved that women's karate at Edgworth has a great future.

Despite the disadvantage of height and age, Alice Finn showed courage and determination, on several occasions getting her taller opponent, Phoebe Morgan on the run.

However, age and reach proved dominant on this occasion and Phoebe took the title from Alice in an exciting bout.

The largest entry was in the younger boys' Kumite category which attracted youngsters aged between six and eight-years-old.

Joint bronze medal position was won by Daniel Earnshaw and Sam Comer.

The final paired Noah Wright and Joseph Morgan who was looking to follow his sister Phoebe to success.

However Noah showed maturity and composure to take the title.

The final event of the day was the kumite event for the taller boys. James Bennett showed bravery to fight on after a knock to the throat, and his bronze medal was his second trophy of the day. Runner up was Ben Comer, going one better than his younger brother Sam. Andy Allwood said: "The tournament was conducted with a spirit of sportsmanship and competitiveness and we would like to extend our thanks to all the parents and competitors for their support, particularly to Kev Finn, Jo Bennett, Imogen Skipper and Andrew French who helped out on the day.

"Special thanks too must go to Stewart Plowes, headteacher of Edgworth Primary School for allowing us the use of the school premises."

l Tower Shukokai is affiliated to Karate England and its coaches are CRB cleared. The club meets at Edgworth CE Primary School on Mondays and Saturdays and at Darwen Vale School on Friday evenings. For more information, contact Andy on 01204 596199, or andyallwood@aol.com our visit website www.towershukokai.co.uk .