Club History
Two years after the 61 youth club began, we decided to branch out and start a Judo Club. So in 1963 Don Elliot (1st Dan) became our coach. He stayed with us for ten years before handing over to Dave Bassein (2nd Dan) in 1973.For the following 2 years Dave ran the club smoothly, before passing things onto Peter and Gina Edwards (3rd Dan). Mr and Mrs Edwards were with us for 10 years before retiring to New Zealand in October 1985.
On their retirement a new coach had to be found and we decided on Paul Jordan, a 22 year old 2nd Kyu (bottom brown belt), who in May 2000 obtained his competitive 5th Dan and is still currently our senior coach.
In 1994 Paul persuaded Cathy Darvell to get on the mat! Two years later Cathy obtained her 1st Dan and decided to try her hand at coaching. Many courses later and with a NVQ to her name, she became a qualified coach. Whilst doing all of her studying she managed to get her grade up to 2nd Dan. However Cathy left us in August 2002 due to other commitments.
In September 2002 Paul’s son Dean Jordan (1st Dan) became the 2nd coach to replace Cathy. Paul was helped by Kim Tilley (4th Dan from Reading Judo Club) and Ron Cleere (2nd Dan from Stokenchurch Judo Club) between June 2004 and May 2006.
Annually we hold a open competitions in May and November, look out for details closer to the dates.