Rayners Lane Taekwon-do Academy

On 25th October, I travelled to Birmingham with my wife Julie, my assistant instructor Mr Gautam & senior student Parvez Sultan as I was invited to get inducted into the Combat magazine "Hall Of Fame 2003".

Combat magazine is the largest martial arts publication that covers most of Europe as well as the U.K, Paul Clifton & the Combat team also produce 'Taekwon-do & Korean Martial Arts' & 'Traditional Karate' magazines.

It was a formal dress event, so we all had to find some tuxedos to look the part, a world away from our doboks I must say!

The award ceremony was held at the Holte Suite at Aston Villa football grounds & was attended by a myriad of martial artists.

The evening started with a plush dinner before the awards were presented. During the course of the evening I was presented with an award for my small contribution to the arts that I love, a nice silver salver with the following inscription:

Combat Hall Of Fame Awards

Presented To
Stuart Anslow

In recognition of his commitment to gain martial arts practice greater popularity both in the United Kingdom and around the World

Paul Clifton - Editor
2003

During the evening, awards were given & speeches were made. Unfortunately, because of the change of venue, notice to this years awards were shorter than usual and a few people couldn't attend due to prior commitments.

Of those that made it, nice speeches came from the likes of Karate legends Geoff Thompson, Grandmaster Kwang Jo Choi & self protection maestro Jamie O`Keefe.

On the night, a rare sword kata, never before performed outside of Japan was displayed, but for me however, it was a letter from one awardee that I liked best, which I will reprint here as soon as I can. The letter was from Wing Chum Grandmaster Ip Chun, son of the legendary Yip Chun, whom spoke about all martial arts being a 'universal physical language that removes barriers'. Ip Chun is now 82 and no longer travels, so unfortunately could not make it.