The course was one again held at Radcliffe-on-trent over the 7th and 8th of December and lived up to the
usually high standard. With over 45 students and 10 instructors, covering many different martial arts including
Kendo; Wada-Ryu Karate; Ko-Budo; Aiki-Jujitsu; Zen Judo; Jujitsu; Tie-Chi; Self Defence and Judo Kata. Plus
the usual Saturday evening disco it was well worth the trip up North.

The course was opened by Shihan Andrew Millard 6th Dan and President of the British Zen JUdo Family
Association who promoted Sensei Gordon Lawson to 5th Dan. Shihan Millard also took the opportunity
to announce his retirement from active Judo and to hand over the running of the BZJFA to Sensei Lawson
who he promoted to Shihan and President of the BZJFA (Shihan Millard will remain as Honoury President
of the BZJFA). We wish Shihan Millard all the best for the future and a big thank you for all his hard work in
promoting Zen Judo.

Sensei Bartolome Cardona 4th Dan Zen Judo Espania and a number of his students traveled over to attend
the course and treated us to an interesting and very Zen session of Judo and Self Defence. Also high on the
list of must do sessions (I even managed to get out of my invalid chair) was Keith Henson 2nd Dan's Kendo
session, but with only 7 sets of armour there was a bit of a stampede to get a place, so much so that extra
sessions where put on.

Luke Walters and Suzanne Shaw were graded successfully to orange belt. And Graham Padgett was awarded
his 3rd Dan after giving an excellent demonstration of Juno-no-kata with uke Anne Parker. They then went on
to give a lesson in the kata. There was no pressure on them (ha ha) as Sensei Charles Fletcher 7th Dan (National
Kata coach) was present.

The course was finally closed by the presentation of certificates and grateful thanks to all students, teachers
and catering staff who all helped to make it a really enjoyable weekend. Hope to see you all there next year.

For more information on future events e-mail : Gordon Lawson