I started Judo when I was 17 or 18 years old in 1964 or 1965 and I used to go to the YMCA in Wellington, Telford, – under Sensei Brian Evens, 1st Dan.

I remembered that to gain a grade, you had to fight for it – win two fights up to Blue then three fights for Blue to Brown. When I was a Yellow belt I won my two fights with ease, so had to fight two Orange belts, which I also won with ease, so that meant I “jumped” to Green belt.

I also remembered we used to “dye” our belts overnight in buckets of cold water, with dye brought from Woolworths!

I gained my Brown belt about three years after starting and then started to go to Shrewsbury. In those days most of the Shropshire Team trained here. Shropshire used to fight a round robin contest with Warwickshire and Leicester two or three times a year (which I got into). This included a trip to Aldershot to fight the Army team which we won 21 wins to 16.  It was on this trip that I met another Brown belt, by the name of Roger Houston (Current 7th Dan, and Chair of Midlands Judo).

At the end of 1968, I gave up Judo to go back to my first love of rugby, which I played until I was 36 but did not do much sport except a bit of running over the next 28 years, as I was moved around a great deal with my company.

On returning from the Middle East after six years at the end of 2009, I was out running one day in June 2010 but I had to stop as I wasn’t feeling well. The long and the short of it was that in August 2010 I had to have a “triple heart bypass operation” (hereditary). However, I got out of the hospital two days after the opp, and was up to running five miles a day within six weeks.  By Christmas 2010, four months after my operation, I decided to get back into Judo as I needed to “solid myself-up”, as I felt “flabby” – not good when you are only 64!

I started by going to Wrekin Star Judo Club in Telford under Sensei Gareth Mapp 4th Dan. When I had found my feet, I then decided to go to Shrewsbury Judo club at Ford, ran by Sensei Roger Houston.  Roger, remembering who I was from our days fighting for Shropshire, took me under his wing. Not long after I met Geoff Moore 5th Dan, who also took me under his wing, and between them I started to do competitions and gradings to see if I could at last gain my Black belt.

I had my first “competitive” fight at the Midlands Open on my 65th birthday in December 2011, where I was well and truly sorted out. Since then I have fought all over the UK and Europe. In total, I did 36 gradings and competitions over four years, and had 96 fights (mostly 18 to 25 year olds, with “muscles in their spit”) to gain my 1st Dan in March 2015, when I was 68 years old.

Moving on, I have fought in France a number of times, as well as Poland, Northern Ireland and the Veteran Europeans last summer in Croatia. Now after 14 months I have just managed to gain my “Competitive” 2nd Dan, gaining my last 10 points at High Wycombe in May, at the ripe old age of 70 years and five months!

Many thanks to Danny Bidgood and John Thacker for the above submission.

If you have a story about how you gained your Dan Grade (or any grade) email them to: communcations@britishjudo.org.uk