Magnificent MATT ARGALL takes the Lightweight & Overall 2012 NPA Midlands titles!
NPA Midlands Championships 2012
Words and photos by Michael Phillips & Fivos Averkiou
Held on Sunday August 19th at Stratford upon Avon Civic Hall, a superb venue with excellent stage and lighting. 44 competitors contested the titles, with the Men’s Overall crown going to an outstanding Matt ‘Granite’ Argall, in incredible shape and weighing in at 58.7kg!
Guest poser was the 2009 Overall NPA British Champion Vince Mwayi, who was in incredible shape for a guest spot! This was Vince’s first appearance on-stage for 3 years and he was very well received by the audience.
Show sponsors were Udo’s Choice, Mark Fox of Fox Mouldings Ltd, Fivos Averkiou, and Helder Barroso with his Xtreme Muscle Clothing company; many thanks to them all for their support.
Results
Ladies Physique
1 – Tara Leydon
2 – Elaine Coulam
3 – Lesley Haswell
4 – Gabriella La Delfa
Masters Over 40’s
1 – Brian Wellman
2 – Filippo Artusa (& best Over 50)
3 – Colin Bennett
4 – Felix McAlinden
5 – David Simpson
Men’s Heavyweights 78kg+
1 – Mark Houghton
2 – Martin Petro
3 – Kevin Clewlow
100% agreed placings in every round from every judge so all 3 competitors were very conclusively placed.
Men’s Middleweights Under 78kg
1 – Bhavesh Varsani
2 – Daniel Henman
Men’s Lightweights Under 70kg
1 – Matt Argall
2 – Lukas Matusu
3 – Gregorio Arias
4 – Amrit Ubhi
Trained Figure
1 – Samira Arnaout
2 – Tracey Tennant
3 – Chloe Lake
4 – Louise Blamires
5 – Sharon Magee
Juniors Under 21’s
1 – Samuel Swann
2 – Chris Roche
3 – Jason Copeland
4 – Sebastian Viteri
5 – Alex Lloyd
6 – Jaspal Kandola
7 – Sam Chapman
Men’s Lightweight Novices
1 – Luke Porter
2 – Peter Garay
3 – Igor Jancovich
4 – Mark Lambert
5 – Jonathan Lakin
6 – Adam Parker
7 – Steffan Holden
Men’s Heavyweight Novices
1 – Robert Bobjak
2 – Gavin Birkett
3 – Paul Warren
4 – Michael Downing
5 – Simon Chivers
6 – Justin Shepherd
On the day of the contest, Thomas Roche was announced in second place, but since the competition, he has been disqualified, and all placings below move up one. See statement below for more on Thomas’ disqualification.
Overall Novice
1 – Robert Bobjak
2 – Luke Porter
Robert takes the Overall Novice title by 4 votes to 3; two outstanding physiques!
Men’s Overall
1 – MATT ARGALL
2 – Brian Wellman
3 – Mark Houghton
4 – Robert Bobjak
5 – Luke Porter
6 – Samuel Swann
7 – Bhavesh Varsani
A great win for Matt Argall, taking the Overall with 100% first places from the judges.
Best Presentation awards: Lesley Haswell and Matt Argall.
Judges: Yoyo Butler, Andrew Palmer, Mark Hesketh, Ian King, Mark Oakes, Karen Mason, Roy Jones, and Michael Phillips.
Back-stage: Charlie McKee.
Polygraphers: Patrick Mulligan and Andrew Armstrong.
Doping Control Officer: Lee Kemp.
As always, many thanks to all who participated, officiated, and spectated, your support is very much appreciated.
Michael Phillips
Secretary – NPA
NPA Statement
A couple of days after the 2012 NPA Midlands Championships (held on Sunday August 19th) I received a message questioning the contest eligibility and Natural status of Thomas Roche, one of the Novice Heavyweight competitors. As I have done on a number of occasions, when I receive correspondence of this nature, I will investigate it, and a couple of days later I spoke to Thomas.
After a short chat I asked Thomas to take a polygraph, as on the day of the competition, he wasn't selected to do so; so to basically put any allegations to rest, all he had to do was sit our polygraph test. He declined to do so. Obviously, any NPA competitor who declines / refuses to sit a polygraph test, is automatically disqualified, and in this case, Thomas Roche is now disqualified from the competition, and banned from competing again with the NPA. Thomas placed second in the H/W Novices, and so all the contest placings from third place downwards will now be automatically promoted a place, and I shall try to rectify the trophies situation in due course. I invited Thomas to send me an e-mail if he had any comment regarding this matter, the following is his response:
‘Having received information from Mike Phillips I had been accused of previously doping in the past I felt that to take the polygraph test was unwise for the following reasons. The knowledge I am under suspicion is more likely to lead to a false positive test, this is a risk I don't feel willing to take. I had and have no desire or ambition to continue to compete in the sport of Natural Bodybuilding after the Midlands show. With all due respect I therefore don't feel it necessary to prove or contest my innocence to anyone. I will continue to follow and be a fan of Natural Bodybuilding in what I consider to be one of the toughest sports. I wish the NPA all the success going forward.
Kind regards,
Thomas Roche’
Michael Phillips
Secretary - NPA
Gallery