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Club History |
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Established
in 1951, and originally known as Croydon and District Judo Society,
Croydon Judo Club has had many homes over the years, including a
billiard hall in Wickham Road, The Gun Tavern, Church Street. For mats
these brave souls used old mattresses, some times covered with canvas.
Later for the Wellesley Road Dojo straw tatami were imported. One
of the individuals responsible for establishing Judo as a sport in this
country, Mr. Gunji Koizumi was a founder of the Budokwai in London. Mr.
George Edwards, the first chairman of the Croydon Club was also a member
of the Budokwai. It was at his request that on April 3rd 1952 Koizumi,
then National Judo Coach, held the first of many gradings at the club.
The club was at that time training at the Croydon YMCA then situated on
the High Street. From
the mid 50's the Club trained at 91 Wellesley Road, a property owned by
Judo Ltd., who published the magazine' Judo' from this address. It
continued to flourish into one of the three largest clubs, becoming a
favorite haunt of the National players of the time. The officials and
members from Croydon club joined with other clubs in formulating the
early organisation of judo associations in the southern area and the
country . Croydon
Council exercised a compulsory purchase order on 91 Wellesley Road in
1972 obtaining the building from Judo Ltd., as part of a road
widening scheme. Mats were retrieved and the Club went into a
series of temporary accommodation. First based in Heath Clark School,
then into rooms at the Purley Way Open Air Swimming Pool, where the
membership slowly rebuilt to a reasonable level. In March 1980 the pool was closed, Council sold the site to Rockinghams as a garden center, and the Club moved back to Heath Clark School into hut 64. However the school itself closed in the summer of 1983 and Croydon College moved in. Judo was not in their scheme of things, and as another temporary measure Council moved the Club, this time into a smaller hut at Lanfranc High School. The club was then offered a plot of land by the Council, in nearby Wingate Crescent on which to build a Dojo. Unfortunately planning permission to build on this site was refused, this land being designated by the planning department as metropolitan open land. In
1985 following this disappointment, and pressure by the members and
friends, once again the Council moved the Club into temporary
accommodation, this time at the Tavistock Center, 10 Tavistock Road,
where once again the membership battled to regain numbers. In
spite of this somewhat nomadic existence the quality of player and
standard of Judo has always been very high, from coaching grass roots,
the disabled and special needs to competitive players. Taking an active
part in all areas of the sport over the years Croydon players have
become Squad Members at County, Area, National and Olympic level.
Not to be outdone other members have become Officials to the same
exacting standard in Refereeing, as Competition Officials, Examiners and
in many other fields of the sport. |