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“George Browning, one of the
club’s founder members, remembers the club’s early days”:
Saffron Walden Judo Club was
founded by Tony Carter in 1970 and he was joined by myself on the opening
night. The Club used one of the huts at the Youth Centre on Fairycroft Road.
As there were no mats, we used
some ordinary bed mattresses. These were spread on the floor and a canvas
placed on top and tied to the heating pipes either side of the room.
The Youth Centre then provided
us with nine honeycomb backed activity mats and a wooden frame - we never did
find out how to use this frame! The Club purchased a Milom's wooden judo mat
frame and this, along with a second hand canvas, was our first proper judo mat.
This was used by our more
experienced judo players, while the rest still used the mattress area. The
changing rooms were: female - the storage cupboard, (after the mats were
removed) and male - the toilets.
Over the next few years we
collected and sold waste paper. The money raised from this was used to build up
a large canvas topped Milom's judo mat.
The Club was very successful
and the Eastern Area soon realised that there was a new Club to contend with.
When the Lord Butler Leisure Centre opened in l984 the Club moved into this new
venue.
We had many successful years in
the Centre until December 2005 when we moved to new premises at the Dame Johane
Bradbury's School.
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George Browning
Founder Member
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