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Tina has asked me to post this on her behalf, if any of you know Dennis or Tina Penfold please spread the word among their friends and colleagues.
Tina Penfold - Club Chairman can be contacted at tinyfunnyface@tiscali.co.uk and would love to hear form as many former club members and visitors as possible.
There is also a facebook group you can join at http://www.facebook....9...9617&ref=mf
Tina has compiled a brief history of our club, it's a great read and offers a unique insight into the development of judo in the UK.
HISTORY OF THE PORTSMOUTH JUDO CLUB
In these days of advanced technology, modern judo clubs enjoy the use of sprung floors, beautiful lighting and coloured mats; it is perhaps difficult for some to realise what it was like for judo players in the early days of this sport of ours, especially in terms of equipment, coaching and access to knowledge.
The Portsmouth Judo Club, which is the oldest club in Hampshire, is now celebrating its 60th anniversary, and one of its founder members, Dennis Penfold, 7th Dan, is inextricably linked with the club’s history. In this short piece I will endeavour to put down in writing an account of the history of the club that Dennis has passed on to me. I will try to be as accurate as I can and apologise in advance for any errors in dates or names!
In 1948 Dennis read an article in the local paper by a Captain Mick Harvey, in which the writer asked for anyone who wished to learn judo to go to a meeting in order to start a judo club in Portsmouth. Dennis, aged seventeen, and who had been inspired by James Cagney’s judo throws in the film Blood on the Sun, turned up for the meeting with five other young men, and the club, then called the Kodokan, was founded.
The Club’s first premises were at Boundary Oak School, on the border between Widley and Portsmouth. Judo suits were expensive and not readily available and Dennis remembers making his suit with canvas material bought from an army surplus store, using a pattern that Mick supplied. The kit was sewn together with string, with a little bit of padding put around the lapels. The coconut mat area was very small and because of this, players were quite often thrown off it onto the floor, the floorboards having to be replaced at regular intervals; remember, this was just after the Second World War and a lot of buildings were in sad need of repair.
Mick Harvey had learnt judo from his father; where he had learnt it remains a mystery. Looking back at this time, Dennis acknowledges that his first teacher was technically knowledgeable in a lot of areas, especially self-defence and had several books published. However, in those early days, judo clubs, including the Budokwai in London, had their own grading system. Mick graded all members with a syllabus that he had devised and by early 1950 Dennis was a club blue belt. With the formation of the BJA in 1948, a more formal grading system was introduced. A visit from a Budokwai 2nd Kyu, Jack Newcombe (who went on to form the first Gosport Judo Club, with the help of Portsmouth Judo Club members) prompted Dennis to start again with his grades. He put on a white belt and started to go on as many courses as he could, the first one being with Mr. Percy Sekine at Bisham Abbey in 1951, which cost £6.10 – a six day course with full board and lodging. Judo suits were now more easily available and Dennis still has notes of a supplier, Judo-Gu, 77 Newington Butts, Elephant & Castle, London S.E.11 - “Judo jackets, top quality, porous, very strong yet soft to the skin, with silk edging: 55 shillings.”
The involvement of Captain Harvey in the Club finished in 1950 when he rejoined the army, fighting with distinction with the Gloucester Regiment in the Korean War, receiving a Military Cross during the Battle of the Imjin River. Whilst serving in Korea he visited Japan where he obtained his Kodokan 1st Dan.
It was after Mick had left that the Club moved to bigger premises in Doyle Avenue in Portsmouth and changed its name to The Portsmouth Judo Club. The chief coaches were Dennis and Roy Williams who later moved to Australia, and who died in 1963 due to an accident.
The club had one more move to Beresford Road in Portsmouth, then on to its most famous address, Penny Street, Old Portsmouth. The Club was located in a small ballroom at the back of the Royal Naval and Albert Yacht Club. There were two toilets, two washbasins, cold water only and no changing rooms, but putting up a partition across the width of the room solved this. The club also boasted a large ornate fireplace. The mat area, which was permanent, was made from what was commonly used in those days – stuffed straw tatami, with a canvas cover, secured with rope to a wooden frame. Heating was minimal: with just three small heaters high up on the walls, a stone floor and a leaky roof, in the winter it was freezing, but the large membership loved it.
When I started in 1957, Dennis was living in London and training at the Budokwai and the club coaches were Mick Hill and Roy Cull. During his time at the Budokwai Dennis won the Peter Sinn trophy for best stylist and he returned permanently to coach and train in Portsmouth in 1958, with a grade of 2nd Dan.
At that time, certainly in the Portsmouth area, Judo was the pre-eminent martial art. The club was open every evening, Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings. By the early 1960s, the membership was very high, beginner classes of thirty plus adults were usual, and the club could lay claim to many Dan grades and successful competitive players. We started our first junior class in the late 70s.
We had many visitors to the club, especially the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and students from Portsmouth Polytechnic. It is rumoured that one of our regular Marine visitors was a certain officer called Paddy Ashdown, who has now been elevated to the Lords. One of our members, Alan Cooper, a small, thin schoolteacher and 1st Kyu, known to all as the Purbrook Strangler, because of his shime-waza expertise, insists that he strangled Paddy Ashdown during a randori. Another club member, and I blush with shame as I write this, was known to us all as Old Ben. We found out later that Doctor Ralph Benjamin was an eminent scientist, respected all over the world.
One of the joys of living in a seaport is the number of visitors from abroad and Portsmouth Judo Club were very lucky to have visits from the Japanese Training Squadron, the latest one in 2005. Our links with other clubs over the years have been very strong, particularly in the 60s and 70s, especially Winchester Judo Club in Chesil Street, which was run by Miss Liz Viney MBE, and Chichester Judo Club, members of both Clubs being frequent visitors.
We seemed to attract a lot of very ‘big’ men and older judo players in Hampshire and Sussex will remember our team of the 60s, which included Dick Scopes, Bob Pearce and Mick Hill, all over six feet tall and very heavy, followed a bit later by John Elkington and Keith Winman. Some of these players won County and Area Championships.
Mr. Mick Leigh, 8th Dan, Vice President of the British Judo Association has reminded me that the first Southern Area trials were held at the Portsmouth Judo Club in 1958.
Another first for the Club was when I was lucky enough to be selected for the Southern Area Team for both Shiai and Kata to take part in the very first British Championships for women in 1966. The championships were held at Liverpool University with no spectators allowed. The Southern Area team won both the Kata and Shiai competition, the team included the legendary Margot Sathay, who not long after moved to Japan to train at the Kodokan, where she obtained the grade of 7th Dan. My Uke in Ju-no-kata was Marie Fourt from Winchester Judo Club. We learnt our kata from Mr Senta Yamada 6th Dan, who still visits this country on a regular basis. Marie and I were also pleased to be invited to demonstrate ju-no-kata during the opening events of the Crystal Palace Sports Centre in 1964.
Margot visited Portsmouth on several occasions, as did Tony Orton, who was a British International, both of whom have since sadly died. We were also pleased to welcome a young Japan trained 4th Dan to the Club for a training session – Mr George Kerr, who is now 9th Dan and President of the BJA.
It was during the 60s, when weight categories were brought in, that Dennis got into the British Team; his wins included a silver medal in the European Championships.
In 1981 we were told the Yacht Club wanted to reclaim their ballroom and we were lucky, thanks to the efforts of the Director of Leisure Services, Mr Brian Hall, to be housed in Victoria Park Swimming Centre, with new permanent mats. The club gained from this move in terms of junior membership and we ran junior and adult classes on Tuesdays, ladies’ sessions on Wednesdays, adults on Thursdays and three junior classes on Saturday mornings: we were very proud that in one year we had achieved the highest club membership in the Southern Area. We were also honoured that Mr John Cornish, 7th Dan Judo, 7th Dan Aikido, agreed to become our President.
Just before this move our most successful female competitor came onto the scene. Janice Turner arrived at the age of eleven, asking Dennis to be her coach. She went on to represent Great Britain on many occasions, her wins included Young Womens’ German Open, first person to win the National Youth title, which she won outright, by dint of 3 successive wins. She also won the 1986 Commonwealth Judo event in Edinburgh. Janice’s international career lasted for ten years. We continued to produce many good men players, including Mark Hollis and Mark Pullinger, who has since moved to Australia. Christine McDermot, who started judo in Penny Street, continued with the sport after her move to Australia. She represented Australia in the Commonwealth Judo Event in 1986 and we met up with her in Tours at the 2006 World Masters when she gained a bronze in her weight category and silver in the open.
In the mid 1990s, Jon Patterson took over the reins of junior coach from me, a post he still holds today. During his tenure he has produced some very good junior players who have won county and area titles, his daughter Sarah going on to win international junior honours, thus continuing the traditions of the club.
From a very small beginning when we called ourselves the Kodokan Judo Club, with coconut matting and homemade suits, to the present day, club members are still achieving success, with both Dennis and I becoming International licensed Kata judges. The club ethos remains focussed on learning skilful judo, following the teachings of Kodokan judo, which was taught to Dennis by his teachers, particularly Mr Leggett, Mr Geoff Gleason, Mr Watanabe and Mr Matsushita.
We now move to uncertain times with the closure of Victoria Park Swimming Centre, but I think as a Club we must be proud of our history and to those many hundreds who have started judo with us and who retain happy memories of the club, we say thank you.
TINA PENFOLD, 5th Dan and Chairman Portsmouth Judo Club
This post has been edited by Hugh Jass: 08 March 2009 - 09:29 PM
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