I am not entirely sure of the Romsey club’s History before 1998. It started in the late 1980s and met at Montfort Hall for a while. Ron gained his black belt at Ray Wood’s Southampton club, though he had previously gained a black belt in Shotokan before joining Southampton Kyushindo Karate. Ron also attended a Racal Recorders work Karate club and instructed students at Stanbridge Earls School while running the Romsey club.

In 1998, I saw an entry on the Hampshire County Council website for a Kyushindo Karate club in Romsey run by Ron Hancock at The Mountbatten School on Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m.

I contacted Ron and went along. The differences I found were the footwork patterns, open hands in fighting stance and some extra Kata’s that I had not done before (8-step, 16-step, 1st Kung Fu and Weapons Kata). They knew some of the Kyushindo Katas from the KIJA that I knew, but they no longer taught them. The Romsey club sessions had a mixture of children and adults, so most of the techniques were aimed towards children, and therefore, the syllabus and Katas were cut down compared to the KIJA. After a few months, I took a grading and had my 1st Dan grade ratified. The adult instructors there gradually left or moved away, so by 2001, I was left as the most senior adult under Ron.

There were still a lot of junior black belts and a few in the 16-20 age group.

Romsey Adult Instructors 2001: Jamie Porteus stopped because his preference for playing football overtook martial arts. Neville Locke was also one of Ray Wood’s Southampton black belts, but he retired from Romsey and martial arts a few weeks after I joined. John Marshall was an ex-Gojo Ryu Karate but who then moved away. Initially, John took me through the Romsey syllabus and Katas. Jim Dalton started with freestyle Karate but was a soldier, so he was posted away for long periods.

Club photos and demos around 2000

In May 2001, I started running a monthly two-hour Thursday evening session for adults and introduced some of the other Kyushindo Katas. I also showed techniques that shouldn’t be taught to children. After a while, these classes became a weekly hour, but I stopped them in 2003 when my first daughter was born. Regular attendees were James Allenby, Russell, and Lizzie Keep. There was also a visit one evening by Oxford Instructors Tony Hulbert and Phil Clewley. During this period, we filmed the Romsey Kyushindo Training video.

Instructors – James Allenby, Andrew Pudney, Russell Keep, David Williams and myself in 2003.

I also persuaded Ron to allow me to create a separate syllabus for the adults, and I added various techniques from the Kyushindo syllabus that Surrey (and Oxford) used. The junior syllabus remained unchanged, and today’s version is the same.

The things I added were mostly additional to the basics; for example, neck chops, roundhouse and turning kicks, dangerous elbows, circular blocks. I also added locks and restraints that I learned from the KIJA and the SCMA Ju-Jitsu. I introduced more paired work and added sparring with kicks for more experienced students. I added some of the Kyushindo Katas I learned at Surrey for the Dan grades.

The Romsey club followed a Judo club in the hall, so they always left the mats out for us. Ron’s sessions always contained a few judo techniques, and break falls were often practised.

James Allenby joined the club in 2000 as a black belt in Taekwondo but wanted to ‘soften’ his martial arts. Ron asked me to mentor him, and after a year or so, James asked me to join him in training in his ‘private dojo’ on his dad’s farm.

I have never considered offering professional private training, but if you have the facilities, I am always happy to participate or help for free.

James reached the grade of 2nd Dan and we regularly attended the Kyushindo annual seminars organised between Oxford, London, and Surrey.

2005: This was a bumpy period in my relationship with Romsey Kyushindo.

James Allenby wanted to pursue a full-time instructor opportunity with another organisation (not a style) set up by a group in Bournemouth, who were friends of Ian Parfitt of Bristol Kyushindo Judo and Mike James of Oxford Kyushindo. I continued to train with James after he was asked to leave the Romsey club for his outside developments, and I spent a lot of time away from the Romsey club.

James Allenby’s ‘Tora’ dojo – in a barn.

James and I developed a new style together:

However, after a while, James married and then wound down his training.

In 2014-2015, we had further training sessions after I visited him at his self-defence classes he was running at a Portsmouth hospital. We then trained at his house. In 2015, we visited a Kyushindo seminar in Reading but then lost contact after his first child was born.

I returned to regular Romsey training in June 2007.

From then on, I took on a general Instructor role within the Romsey club. Russell Keep had become Ron’s assistant for instruction, grading, and planning, and he continued in that role.

Russell’s children trained at Ray Wood’s Southampton club but became disillusioned. They started training at Romsey around 1999, and he began training with them a little later. His son dropped out after a while due to musical interests, but Lizzie kept going until about 2008 when she moved away. However, in 2023, she started attending again.

The Romsey club moved to The Romsey School in 2006, at the same time on Tuesdays. In 2008, an additional club was started on Saturday mornings back at Mountbatten School.

August 2010: Ron closed the Tuesday evening club at The Romsey School and moved all training to Saturday mornings at The Mountbatten School.

There have been many black belts and instructors from around 2010 who no longer train at Romsey today. Richard Harris, who started with Ron at Stanbridge Earls Club, joined the Romsey Club. Andy Brown and Andy Baxter instructed for a long time with the club. Darren Bryn and Tim Young joined from other styles and became successful Instructors.

The extensive black belt grading in 2016 added four senior instructors who are still going strong today.

Lee Tyler, Bex Lester, Russell Keep, Karl Lester and James Mckenzie.

Lee Tyler, Bex Lester, PC, Ron, Karl Lester and James Mckenzie.

 Alex Baxter received his third Dan award in 2019. He started as a junior in 2007, with his Dad – Andy, progressed through Cadet Black, and then onto Senior grades.

The club remained at The Mountbatten school until 2023, when obtaining a regular booking on Saturday mornings became more difficult, so the club moved to Ganger Farm Pavillion sports centre.

There have been a few more homegrown senior black belts—Andy French, Jacob French, and Dexter Lester in 2024. Ruth (Rustle) Davis re-joined in 2023 after gaining a cadet black belt in 2005 and was regraded to Senior Black belt.