I lived in the Shirley district of Southampton for about a year. While I was there I taught a football player named Colin White. We trained outside in all weathers, anywhere we could find (a school playground mostly) and occasionally in his mothers flat. He was very committed to training but eventually had to stop to further his football career. Another thing that happened was that I met Theresa, who became my second wife (I met her in a pub called The Rising Sun and have never been back since).
Theresa lived in Chandler's Ford, just outside Southampton. It was there that I opened a club at the Ritchie Memorial Hall and ran it for six years, during which time I met several outstanding Martial Artists.
The first of these was Sensei Mike Gray, a fifth degree black belt in Judo and third degree in Ju-Jitsu (he had also studied Wado Ryu Karate). He went on to study Taekwondo (Korean Martial art meaning Fist Foot Way) Doce Pares Escrima (Philippines stick-fighting art) and is at present the Southern representative for Jeet Kune Do (Way of the Intercepting Fist). Mike and I trained together over six years, as did our students, performed several demonstrations for the public and taught together at yearly training camps in Cornwall along with Sifu D. Green (Jun Fan / Jeet Kune-Do) and Sensei C. Wedderburn (Ju Jitsu), giving seminars (training workshops where students try out different arts and training methods). I have always held a great respect for Mike as a teacher of the Martial Arts and have valued his friendship and that of his family.
The second was Sifu Simon Chesney. He taught the Phong Guan, Cong Chang (Phoenix Eye Fist and Sun Palm) system of Kung Fu at the Athletic Union Southampton University. Simon and I ran a series of Ladies' self defence courses at the campuses and hospitals around Southampton. Simon and many of his students changed to my style of Kung Fu which I had renamed Hung Leng Kuen (Free Spirit Fist) as it was no longer pure Fu Jow Pai (Tiger Claw system) nor pure Hut Pao Tsut (Black Leopard System). When Simon left in the mid 1980's, I took over as Sifu at the University as well as still running the classes in Chandler's Ford.
At this time some of the university students were training at all my classes, seven times a week.
