On Saturday 2nd November as is customary for this time of year, a few higher Dan grades and club owners gathered at Sensei & Rae’s house for a BBQ, Firework and Bonfire party!
It was a great evening (albeit a bit wet!) with fun, food, fireworks (big ones!) and lots of laughter…
This years tour started in the first pub of the original beer tour a decade ago and the location of the now infamous “PIE GATE” incident (which will be marked by Biggleswades first Blue Circle plaque outside the pub – but it might have a bite sized chunk missing!!).
Read moreOn Monday 4th February 2019, Sensei Nursey celebrated a very special birthday! With Monday also being the ‘first Monday of the month lesson’ he got the chance to celebrate it along with most of the ESKA black belts.
Before the normal lesson kicked off, Sensei stood out the front of the class and asked if everyone could get together for a group photo. After establishing a group of people that still have working knees to kneel down on the front row, we all put on our best smiles and eagerly awaiting the 10 second countdown of the camera… It quickly became awkward after 20 seconds and still no flash! So Sensei Rae was brought to the rescue to take the picture the old fashioned way.
Here’s the result…
It was great to have so many black belts attend the lesson, with 37 ESKA black belts present. After the photo we all lined up and Sensei Luke took the warm-up.
Before starting the lesson, Sensei John Gillespie stood out the front and presented Sensei Nursey with his present. All the ESKA Dan grades had a whip around, to try and enable Sensei to achieve one of his dreams of flying a Spitfire. Sensei was given a silver model Spitfire and the money collected along with a fabulous card…
We then had a shorter than normal lesson covering the importance of hip movement using a series of Age Uke’s and Gyaku Zuki’s. Alot of the senior ESKA Instructors then split off from the class to head towards the curry house, for Sensei’s surprise meal organised by Sensei Rae.
We all had an amazing curry and a couple of ‘orange juices’ to wash it down with. It was an amazing night celebrating a individual who has devoted 40 years of his life to ESKA and even more to Karate-do.
Happy Birthday Sensei and we all look forward to many more years with you at the helm of the best Martial Art’s association in the UK!!!
Oss!
Our annual ESKA Dinner & Dance was held on 24th November 2018 at the Needham House Hotel in Little Wymondley.
This was the 2nd year the event has been held back at the Needham House Hotel a central location which is great for most clubs to get to.
The evening was full of drinks, awards, food, dancing and most importantly fun!
On Saturday 3rd November as is customary for this time of year, a few higher Dan grades and club owners gathered at Sensei & Rae’s house for a BBQ, Firework and Bonfire party!
It was a great evening with fun, food, fireworks and lots of laughter…
On Saturday 4th August, the ESKA senior grades and club instructors gathered at Sensei Nursey’s house for a summer BBQ.
We were spoiled with the weather and fun was had all round!
So, here is the ESKA 2018 “Deep South Real Ale Tour” synopsis with the usual anecdotal stories…. Sensei Gavin having yet another food issue, Sensei Tony still unable to drink a full pint of Ale, the welcome introduction of 2 new “Real Alers” and of course another excellent final meal to finish the night off.
Our annual ESKA Dinner & Dance was held on 18th November 2017 at the Needham House Hotel in Little Wymondley.
It was great to be back at this venue (Previously called the Blakemore) after many years at the Old Palace Lodge hotel in Dunstable.
The evening was full of drinks, awards, food, dancing and most importantly fun!
On Saturday 4th November as is customary for this time of year, a few higher Dan grades and club owners gathered at Sensei & Rae’s house for a Bonfire party!
It was a great evening with fun, food, fireworks and lots of laughter…despite the brief interruption!
Following another successful ESKA Real Ale Tour, here is a short write up of the few highlights that can be remembered!
We must also compliment and thank both Matt (‘driver’, who only got lost once) and Fiona (‘head mistress’ who made sure all the “kids” got round safely) and without whom the tour would not have been possible. They also coped well with the heckling and the later than expected finish.
In keeping with the ‘head mistress’ and educational theme, the day was more educational than expect and a number of important things were learnt throughout the day, either by practical experiment, harsh experience or observation.
Sad News – Alan Thomas24th March 2021 - 10:56 amSadly Alan Thomas passed away last week due to pancreatic cancer
Sad News – Sensei Mick Randall MBE11th June 2020 - 2:33 pmToday we heard of the very sad news that Sensei Mick Randall passed away. As you may know, ESKA had a number of founding members of which Sensei Mick Randall was one of them.