DJC attends the Premiere of the Plymouth Judo Documentary 'We Used to Fight for England'

​ Saturday the 28th April saw DJC gathering at the Plympton St Maurice Guildhall for the Premiere of the film 'We Used to Fight for England' - A film which was conceived and directed by Wayne Perry(Harvey's Grandad)

Chairman Ross Taylor, Head Coach Mike Nugent, Head Ashburton Coach Mike Askew and President Perry and First Lady Mags were all in attendance along with Toby's Dad Adrian.

The evening was also a chance for the Judo community to come together and congratulate Andy Cooper who was recently awarded his 6th Dan, Andy started at a Judo club in Plymouth over 40 years ago which was run by a concrete company!!, Mark Adams 4th Dan made the presentation to Andy which was very well received

The evening was very enjoyable and it was nice to catch up with old friends, some of which we hadn't seen for a while including Mark Hannon and PJC founder Reg Smith who started Judo in 1948!

The Film itself was very good with some lovely Camera work, Maria, Erin and Harvey are all featured on screen from Drake.

The first presentation of Judo of any type in Plymouth happened in 1920 when Budokwai Head Coach Yukio Tani performed at the Palace Theatre in Union Street, throwing an open challenge out to

sailors and local toughs to come and try their luck in a contest(Tani very rarely lost despite being only 5ft 2) from there in 1955 Reg Smith along with a couple of others founded Plymouth Judo Club, one of their first juniors was Alan Kimber who joined around 1957/58. Charles Kase then founded a rival club called the

Otani Club in the late 50's where DJC 6th Dan Pat Warren first trained! -

There was also a Police club which operated in the late 50's - real success did not come until the mid 1970's with a generation of invincibles including, Michael Rea, Keith Morris, Mark Hannon, Wayne Perry, Ian Landricombe, Pete Warner, all of whom would represent their country and win National medals and titles, this would continue into the early 1980's with players such as Paul Clifton, Simon Carter, Charles Knape, Andy Costello, Shane Kimber, Matt Lawrence and most notably Adrian Morgan.

So without further ado we are proud to present 'We Used to Fight for England'