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History of Carnalea Karate Club
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Carnalea Wado Kai was founded by David and Angela Brashaw
on Saturday 30 April 1994. When the doors opened at 10am,
at the Carnalea Methodist Centre on the Rathmore Road, the
first new student was Michael Beattie (age 11), from Lyndhurst
Avenue in Bangor. Other juniors were; Christopher Caldwell,
Richard Ferguson, Philip Orr, Jonathon Doudican, Campbell
Stewart, Stephen Fisher, Philip Alcorn, Michael Spence, Daniel
Fraser, Dean Corbett and Jervis Flemming. The senior class
(12 and over) included; Leigh Corbett, Emma Fraser, Glen Corbett,
Damian Gallagher, Michael Duff, Philip Allen and John Hughes.
Before opening the club David felt there was need for karate
classes especially for children in the North Down and so it
has proved ever since. An early incentive, which David had
previously introduced to the North Down Wado Kai clubs, run
by Valerie Campbell and Bobby Hamilton was 'merit badges'.
These little badges which reward basic skills progression
have always been a big hit with the children. The first merit
badges (for Front Kick) were awarded to ten children on 25
June 1994. In it's early days the club was assisted by Reggie
Duckett from Holywood. Reggie trained regularly with the club
up until he was awarded his black belt by Prof. Tatsuo Suzuki
in May 1999 at Ards Leisure Centre. At this point it would
be good to explain that David was a second dan black belt
in wado ryu karate , was ranked 7th in the world Wado International
Karate-do Federation (WIKF) championships and was the Chairman
of WIKF in Northern Ireland. He had also trained for four
years in Tia Jitsu. Angela was a 3rd kyu brown belt, which
she had earned after four years in Higashi. On 30 July 1994,
Lorraine Kirk attended her first training session at the club
and she was joined on 22 October 1994 by Kevin and Sam Lewis.
These three senior students have trained with the club ever
since and have impacted significantly on their own karate
progress, the development of other students and the image
of the club, not only in the local community but also on the
international stage. On 10 February 1996 the Murdocks, James
(age 10), Kevin (age 8) and sister Kealin (age7) joined the
club. All three went on to amass many trophies with Kealin
and Kevin bringing home a silver and bronze respectively in
the 2002 WIKF European Championships. The first Carnalea Basho
(competition) was held in June 1998 and it was made up of
four events, (Junior kata & kumite and Senior kata & kumite).
It was contested by 44 children between the ages of 6 and
13, the winners being Mark Lewis, Andrew Mercer, James and
Kevin Murdock. The 2003 Basho had eleven events and over 80
competitors between the ages of 5 and 36. The club's amazing
success between 1998 and 2003 has always been greatly hampered
by old school Northern Ireland karate politics. Even though
Carnalea students were forever beating students from other
associations within the NI Karate Board, they were never invited
to represent Northern Ireland at international level. On 1
July 2003 senior instructors resigned the Carnalea club from
the WIKF, and aligned themselves with the forward thinking,
pro-active Ulster Karate Council. David had been a guest of
the Ulster Karate Council in the 2001 World Karate Confederation
(WKC) world championships when he had come home with a bronze
medal. He subsequently followed that up on 21 June 2003 in
St Petersburg, Russia when he became the first person from
Great Britian or Ireland to win a senior gold medal at the
WKC World Championships. Since that move two students Michael
Wallace and Kevin Murdock have represented Northern Ireland
on the international squad.
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