Page 178 - Mind, Body & Spirit Number 104 2020/21

176
www.raptcassociation.org.uk
Frank Turner, followed by QMSI Nick Stuart. Frank Turner1 took part in four Olympic Games, three as a competitor and the fourth as National Coach; he was captain of the British Gymnastics team in the 1948 Summer Olympics. Turner was four times British gymnastics champion. While Nik Stuart2 MBE competed at the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics in all artistic gymnastics’ events. The entourage of Nick Gradley, Bert Dooley, Jack Scrivener, Rod Coveney, Jack Pancott (the British Individual Champion who represented GB in the world games in Germany) and up-and- coming gymnasts Jimmy Wilson and Bob Trenholm followed in their wake.
When attending gymnastic lessons, I, and hundreds (probably thousands) of students purchased leather hand straps, before plunging their hands in magic chalk dust to ease skin burns, but the effect was perverse. After constant repetitive swings on the high bar, frictional forces ripped the skin from our palms, causing stinging pains from the treatment of methylated spirits. The gurus stated it hardened your hands.
I can date the emergence of Judo back to 1953 but for a comprehensive review, Judo lovers you should refer to Harry Welsh B. Ed. (Hons) Dip RG & RT& Lt Col (Ret’d) D J Martindale QBE history in the Corps Museum. Their introductory historical information refers to SSI Ron Reilly, who founded Army Judo while at the RMA Sandhurst in 1953. Ron Reilly, assisted by Bill Stewart, then later by Bill Hodgson, continued the sport’s development. These instructors taught the RMA cadets in their own time and had to work on the proverbial ‘shoestring’ for a considerable time until they established a permanent dojo in a disused hut. Throughout his stay in the UK, Ron Reilly was the driving force in encouraging APTC personnel to become interested in judo and can rightly lay claim to being the ‘father’ of Army judo, even though subsequent years saw the flowering of high-class performers and coaches.
According to Welsh and Martindale there were other enthusiasts within the Corps, particularly in the Far East, where APTCIs stationed in Korea were ‘bitten by the bug.’ Most notable of these were Instructors Ray Mitchell (later Captain) and Mike Sheedy (Major) began their long association with judo training in Singapore and Hong Kong judo clubs. These two Corps members were eventually to become ‘household names’ in Army judo. In 1965 Singapore championships Mike Sheedy, Bill Hodgson, and Brian ’Dan’ Daley won their respective weights.
At the ASPT, Ray Mitchell was the school judo specialist; he was probably instrumental in developing rising stars such as Terry Hewitt, Dennis Martindale, Brian Daley, Terry Hellicar, Howard Gee, Rick Slater, John Roberts, and Chris Johnson. These APTCIs were emerging as the second generation of Judo players at the national level. On the coaching side, Harry Welsh became the
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Turner_(gymnast) 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nik_Stuart
first holder of the Senior Coach Award. With Welsh being both an Area Coach and a Senior Coach, he had a dispensation from the National Coach to conduct examinations for the Coach Award on his own, as it meant that they were now fully self-sufficient for the two awards. Gradually more Corps personnel were successful in gaining the Coach Award.
Whilst the Judo fraternity was progressively developing, two other sports, fencing and basketball were also peaking. Corps members who represent the Army Fencing Union, Combined Services, often competed in high-level competitions. One that stands out is a retired Lt Col (SMAA) George Gelder. His achievements are legendry. George Gelder has the unique honour of having his name inscribed on the same trophies that his father, the late Lieut.-Colonel (MAA) GL Gelder, won many years ago. When I first met him, he was the Fencing Instructor at the School and with his guidance I managed a silver proficiency award and became a provisional President, which reminds me of a story. As a President in the World’s Pentathlon Championships in Fox gym around 1967, I presided at Sgt Jim Fox’s match with a Russian when Jim asked me to investigate a registered hit. The technicians found a fault but put it down to a faulty wire. I have often wondered about this case when reading the headlines of the cheating Russian in the Montreal Games in 1976, where a Russian doctored his epee electrical system while duelling with Jim Fox! Other stalwarts such as retired Lt Cols (SMAA) George Talkington and Stanley Blacknell, Peter Lennon, Ron Bright, Clive Eldridge, Ray Emery have all given valuable help to the Army Fencing Union.
While on my Assistant Instructors and first advanced courses, Dougy McGreggor was the basketball specialist. He taught me a lot for officiating and coaching, but my playing ability was really down to Gary Fuller, an AKI with me at Arborfield, but honed by my then boss SI Terry Hammond (later Lt Col MBE) and while attending an advanced basketball course at Aldershot. Basketball was a rather a Cinderella sport, army wise. The first game recorded was in 1919. But it would be the D Day build-up period that gave the opportunity for coalition troops to play the game in Units at inter Platoon and inter Company level. It is a way of exercising small many groups of men informally, which perpetuated the need to form a governing body–hence they formed the Army Basketball Association on the 6th of July 1939. This concept was then further developed as the British Services had a succession of progressive meetings which agreed that Commands and Districts should encourage competition and suggested that attempts to arrange Inter Service and Inter Army (Major and Minor Units) and international matches.
The army team in 1960 represented the combined services at the Supreme Allied Headquarters of Europe in France. While they manage a win from eight games, Dougy McGreggor came back with a game plan by combining the local Aldershot army team and civilians from the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough to form the Aldershot Warriors, a team arguably the best amateur team ever produced. The aim of this joint project was to improve the status of the army team by wresting the inter-Service Trophy from the ever-winning RAF.
SMI Jack Beasor (late Major) coached the team and coached us to win the London League five times, runners up at the national championships thrice, and champions in 1965. But fortunes changed when they took the team again to the National finals in 1968, playing against the Central YMCA. By now, Gary Fuller BEM had taken over. He was keen to poach top players from other civilian teams, which strayed from the aims of the Army Basketball Association. At this final, Vaughan Thomas, then the Great Britain Team manager, influenced Gary Fuller into playing the ‘civilians’ of the team from the England squad, which proved disastrous in the first half. Gary, admitting to his mistake, brought on the veterans of the team (the Army APTC lads) Woods, Harrison, Goulding, Robson, Fuller and Judge. In the second half, we closed the gap, but not enough to win the game.