Part 2

Part 2

This old photograph, dated late 1958 early 1959 (note the flock mattress), was given to us at the opening of the new Dojo. We can identify all the men - left to right: Alan Campbell, Edgar Greenough, Dereck Towers & Keith Buckham. The woman in the middle

Fairly quickly Tony's cottage became overcrowded so, with the significant help of Colin Draycott, a Midlands businessman and Brian Cox (again) the club moved a little way up the street to an old Salvation Army hostel and converted it to a dojo with living accommodation. It even had, in the basement, a traditional Japanese bath.

With Tony as the coach the new dojo soon started attracting students from all over the world to come and train at Kendal. Not only up and coming players but World and Continental Champions such as Robert van de Walle and Ingrid Berghmans from Belgium (the judo player not the film star) the considered the best woman fighter of her time, Michael Swain could have trained on the West Coast of America but he chose Kendal. Even the undefeated Yasuhiro Yamashita from Japan came for a fortnight as well as the Communist Chinese National Squad who came for three months to train prior to the 1988 Olympic Games. The first time they had ever left Asia to train.

Neil Eckersley was one of the most successful 'home grown' players winning a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. The success rate continues with a dozen of the club's current members winning medals at International Tournaments.

The most successful of our current membership are Michael Horley, Danny Harper, David Groom, Aaron Asplin and Nick Hill in the veteran categories.