Bladder Grabber XXVI

We held the annual Bladder Grabber triple-elimination combat tournament at Snohomish, Washington this past weekend. Despite hard times and airline difficulties, we had 31 contestants. Winners were:

1. David Owen, Tennessee
2. John Salvin III, California
3. Mike Willcox, California
4. George Cleveland, Louisiana
5. Jeffrey Rein, Washington
6. Mel Lyne, British Columbia

David, who earned a place on the US F2D team last month, won the Grabber for the second consecutive year. No, combat is not all luck.

The highlight for most of us was seeing 16-year-old Milissa Huber beat up on the likes of Phil Granderson, Chuck Rudner, Richard Stubblefield, and Bill Maywald. OK, she didn't actually beat Phil, but only because her pit crew caught her airplane, causing her to forfeit the match. Her feat is all the more remarkable when you consider that this is actual AMA combat, an event that in the entire northeast quadrant of the United States there is nobody man enough to fly.

Cellular telephony can be fun. Each time Milissa beat one of the geezers, his family and homeboys would be notified before he slumped out of the circle. Sometimes the calls would be put on the PA system for all to hear.

Here are the winners and a picture of Preston Briggs flying his first AMA combat match. He was flying Mark Rudner, another US team member and former Grabber winner. Preston won with a kill.

Howard, Thanks for the info..it must have been a great time!

Now, in regards to your comments about the Northeast quad...Why would they want to when they have a much better event that fast combat already in place? An event that continues to grow instead of die!

Joe:P

LAST EDITED ON Aug-05-03 AT 09:44 PM (CDT)
 
Reposted by permission from Jeff Rein from the Combat-L list.

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From: Jeff Rein
Subject: Bladder Grabber Part One, The Melissa Huber story

There is a 16 year old flier here in the NW who learned to fly diesel combat a couple of years ago, and progressed to 80MPH and fast combat in a very short time. At the bladder Grabber this year she showed everyone that she is not one to be trifled with. Saturday she flew multiple Bladder grabber winner, and 3rd place winner at a previous World Champs Phillip Granderson. She decisively beat the pants off of him, only to receive a forfeit because of an infraction committed by the pit crew.

How did she deal with this adversity? In her next match she promptly killed the current MACA rated # 1 fast combat flier Bill Maywald in a tough match. She next drew Richard Stubblefield. About half way through that match, Stubby wound her up in a tangle. Did she panic? NO. She stood her ground, extended her arm, leaned into him and fought hard through the line tangle for about 15 seconds until she killed him, and then ran him into the ground.

Next, she drew Chuck Ruddner. Not wanting to lo! ok bad in front of his wife or his son, Chuck went up with his best equipment. I believe that Chuck got the first cut and went defensive. Well you can't hide from Melissa for 4 1/2 minutes. After watching Chucks defense for a while, she timed his exit from inverted, pulled a roundhouse diesel move, and killed him dead. That's two years in a row that Melissa has killed Chuck at the Grabber! I talked with her at lunch, and commented that I thought she had beaten just about all of the big names out there. She replied back that, "Well I haven't flown Michael yet"

Guess who she drew next round. There is a side bar on all of this. You see Howard Rush has this unique sense of humor. After each of Melissa's wins, he would call the looser's wife's on the cell phone and explain how there husband was just killed by a 16 year old girl, and then hand them the phone so they could explain to there wife of their shortcomings.

Back to Michael. Now Michael had been watching all of these events transpire, and did not want Howard calling his mom and explaining how the World Champion got beat by a teenage girl, so Michael was prepared for a good fight. The match started a little cautious, feeling each other out, not knowing what to expect. It soon turned aggressive, and the match was on. As you might expect, EVERYONE was watching this one.

Michael got the first cut, then Melissa charged right back. Feeling the pressure, Michael went inverted and on the defense. Melissa was fooled by Michael's next move and pan caked into the ground. The pit crew got her back up in no time, and they were at it again with even more intensity. Melissa was in control of the match now and just missed the kill twice in about 6 seconds. Michael was just trying to get back on the offensive, when he ran out of fuel. Michael's plane was refueled, and then Michael paid Melissa the highest of all complements. To assure a win he chose to use a strategy that is used on his fiercest of competitors.

Ahead on points, he chose to stay down for another minute and ten seconds until Melissa's fuel supply was almost exhausted so as not to put himself at risk of that pesky kill. He went up for one lap and Melissa was out of fuel, leaving Michael with a very smartly flown win, and advance into the next round. Melissa was done for the weekend, knocking off more big names in a weekend than most do in a year. She was flying a Fox all weekend on a Wakkerman. At the end of the contest, just for fun, Tom put her up for a ride on a Fora 36. When I asked what she thought of it, she said, "I Like It".

Jeffrey

It has been pointed out to me that not only do people in the NE fly AMA combat, but I have been consistently beaten by them whenever I've flown against them for the past decade or two. I apologize for my remarks to everybody south of Massachusetts.

hey howard you coming down to the clovis fly this year

That's my plan. It's a great contest.

Howard, are there T-shirts available for this year's Bladder Grabber? If so, please save me one XL. Maybe you can sell some surplus here. I woulda been there, except for my 40th HS Reunion, which was great. Steve

No T shirts this year. Buzz was building two houses and didn't have time. The rest of us are too triflin'.