View's Stewart, Bell shine

Stewart fought at the Ford-sponsored Split Grade event at Dagenham in which he was in the u42kg pool containing the green, blue and brown belts. He won the first pool and a semi-final and collected the silver medal.

Stewart followed this fine performance with a silver at the inter-counties event, held at the impressive Dartford Judo Club.

He had three fights, recording two wins, and missed out to a Koka in the last few seconds in the other.

Stewart did exceptionally at the event, beating an old adversary for the first time. His club colleague Bell picked up a silver with two wins and draw and the Bridge View pair gave the best account of any Sussex club players.

Bell and Stewart were also in action at the newly-opened K2 facility at Crawley, the venue for the prestigious National Junior Team Champion-ships.

Bell was unlucky to miss out in a tough group, scoring only one win and an unusual loss to an arm-lock and had to settle for a bronze medal. Stewart had three fights and won them all, also taking a bronze.