PRESIDENT's BULLETIN

2025 is over. There were a lot of fun moments, notable achievements & things worth remembering. Here are the things that I remember most:

UDEZUMOU TAG WARZONE '25 -- Vicious match with Mateusz Matuszczac. I might have won it. It was my match of the year.  

STEELARM FIGHT 2: Reffing at Hightower's gym for supermatches. Spalding Steelarms are always interesting to catch up with. 

ARMGODS WINTERBLAST/INDEPENDENCE CUP - Oto Fogelmanis' promo was the funniest thing on a trip full of humour & excitement. I also offered a 100 dollar bet that Mindaugus Dulskas would win his match to Allen Ford, Ryan Grondin, Jody Williams, Bob Brown & RVJ. None of them would back their man against our champ. Sweet. I'll never let them forget it. 

SCURTU VIOREL - I rarely miss people, I always have too much to do, but Viorel departing the UK is a loss. We often…

2025 is almost in the rear view mirror. The armwrestling road this year took me away from home for about a month in total: Boston (Lincs) Armagh, Grantham, Preston, Philadelphia, Ramsgate, Motherwell, Swindon, Tallin (Estonia), Leeds, Spalding, Birmingham for Udezumou & both Nationals & Leigh (many times) for various Ultimate Armwrestler adventures either as enforcer or audience (as I was last week). Armgods have announced their next big event which is in Scotland on 14th March. Details will be on www.armgods.com . Dan Tutt has informed me that British Sit Down Armwrestling Championships will be on 16th May with Summerslam 18th July.​

IFA have not published dates for the EUROS yet: WORLDS have been accepted at Congress as being in Japan at end of September, but not yet publicised by IFA - Japan Armwrestling Association website has details (you might need to apply your device to translate it) - https://jawa-armwrestling.org/?page_id=37482 .…

95 entries for the Left arm & 108 for the right in Pro Nationals were overseen by IFA Master Refs Judy, Paulina & Darius who also helped our referee team develop with a seminar, feedback & advice. Reffing isn't easy - it takes some dedication & perseverance to do it well & our domestic team has grown & improved year on year. Similarly the scoring team have a lot of expectation & hope hanging over them. We are lucky to have their patience & attention. Results for both days are up on the results page. 

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Some cracking matches over the weekend, my favourites:

The Left 95kg final between Adrian Popescu & Matteusz Matuszczak who fought with every fibre to overcome each other. A supermatch between these pair would be interesting for sure.

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Preparation for the Novice Nationals started for real in late august. The venue was booked 11 months ago with various arrangements made over the year gradually which are now boring to talk about & even less interesting to hear. Novice Nationals are the most difficult & onerous of all the events I have ever organised in & out of armwrestling.

There is a lot of hope & I feel it in the weeks leading up. I don't find it fun. There are so many things to get wrong & even more outside of any sort of control. Despite best efforts many things went wrong. In the scheme of things they are minor, but for the people it affects it's significant. Some people got left out of the running order. Others ended up on the wrong side of the bracket & so did not achieve what they might have done. A…