Happy Birthday from His Royal Highness
By Alan Feldberg
By Alan Feldberg
HIGH Wycombe Judo Centre has been given the Royal seal of approval; HRH the Duke of Edinburgh has personally written to the club to wish them a happy 21st birthday.
In the letter, Prince Philip said: "There is always much talk about community action, but there are not all that many examples of really successful projects.
"I believe that the originators of the scheme, and all those unpaid volunteers and directors, deserve to be congratulated on their achievement.
"I hope the centre will go on to even greater achievements in the years ahead and I am glad to have this opportunity to send my best wishes to everyone involved for a happy and constructive future."
The letter continues a relationship spanning more than 20 years.
On a whim, the driving force behind High Wycombe Judo Centre John O'Brien approached Prince Philip to officially open the centre back in 1987.
In the letter, Prince Philip said: "There is always much talk about community action, but there are not all that many examples of really successful projects.
"I believe that the originators of the scheme, and all those unpaid volunteers and directors, deserve to be congratulated on their achievement.
"I hope the centre will go on to even greater achievements in the years ahead and I am glad to have this opportunity to send my best wishes to everyone involved for a happy and constructive future."
The letter continues a relationship spanning more than 20 years.
On a whim, the driving force behind High Wycombe Judo Centre John O'Brien approached Prince Philip to officially open the centre back in 1987.
The Duke of Edinburgh accepted, and has personally followed the club's success ever since.
O'Brien said: "I wrote to him telling him what we were doing and inviting him to open the centre, but I didn't really expect to hear back.
"Surprisingly, we didn't have to wait long for him to write back offering to open the centre at the start of April.
"It was still a construction site then, so I wrote back asking to put the visit back a few weeks, but his schedule wouldn't allow that.
"It certainly compressed our building schedule."
The Prince was due to stay for 40 minutes, but extended his visit to more than an hour and a half.
O'Brien said: "We had 80 kids on the mat that day and he talked to all of them.
"I think it captured his imagination because we started from nothing and built it up and it's tremendous that he supports us like this.
"I don't think there's many organisations, especially small organisations, that have this level of support from a member of the Royal family."
O'Brien's audacious approach and continued relationship with HRH mirrors his lofty ambitions to build from scratch one of the best judo centres in the country, and the endorsements do not stop there.
Margaret Thatcher, Neil Kinnock and, bizarrely, His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan, have all written letters of support while visitors to the club include Sir Geoff Hurst and a list of top politicians.
O'Brien said: "To get to the top, you've got to aim for the top.
"We wanted someone of profile to show that we'd done what we said we'd do.
"But while I might have been the driving force, I wouldn't have achieved anything without the help of the people around me."
These include founding members Gary Gillot, Alan Green, Colin Nicholls and Bill Nobbs, who famously got the ball rolling sitting around a dining room table one night in 1985, when they all contributed one pound to the kitty.
Accountant Graham Fanko came on board shortly afterwards to handle the finances of what became a £200,000-project.
O'Brien said: "The Centre has also been grateful for the support from the local authority. They were one of the first in the country to give 100 per cent rate relief to a sports club, which has been a massive contributing factor in our success."
The offer was made in 1990 and has effectively saved the club £200,000 since then.
O'Brien said: "What we did set a benchmark for future clubs and it took a long, long time for anything to come close to it.
"I still go back and take the odd class, and am proud that it's beeen such a success story because clubs like ours are important to the community beyond belief, more so now than ever.
"Unfortunately it's the deliquents who wreck the community that get all the attention, while young people that achieve, and their coaches, helpers and parents who give up their time for free, don't get the recognition they deserve.
"But the future is still bright. There are still people out there determined to achieve in spite of the adversity."
l High Wycombe Judo Centre is one of ten sites in the county bidding to become an Olympic training centre for London 2012.
It has history. The British Judo team has trained at Wycombe Judo Centre off and on for 20 years, and the country's most successful Olympic judo team trained there before Barcelona 1992 - when Wycombe's own Ray Stevens won silver.
The club has also hosted a number of other national teams.
O'Brien said: "I had the ambition to turn it into an Olympic training centre from day one.
"The likelihood of not getting a national team training here is remote because we have just about the best facilites in the country."
O'Brien said: "I wrote to him telling him what we were doing and inviting him to open the centre, but I didn't really expect to hear back.
"Surprisingly, we didn't have to wait long for him to write back offering to open the centre at the start of April.
"It was still a construction site then, so I wrote back asking to put the visit back a few weeks, but his schedule wouldn't allow that.
"It certainly compressed our building schedule."
The Prince was due to stay for 40 minutes, but extended his visit to more than an hour and a half.
O'Brien said: "We had 80 kids on the mat that day and he talked to all of them.
"I think it captured his imagination because we started from nothing and built it up and it's tremendous that he supports us like this.
"I don't think there's many organisations, especially small organisations, that have this level of support from a member of the Royal family."
O'Brien's audacious approach and continued relationship with HRH mirrors his lofty ambitions to build from scratch one of the best judo centres in the country, and the endorsements do not stop there.
Margaret Thatcher, Neil Kinnock and, bizarrely, His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan, have all written letters of support while visitors to the club include Sir Geoff Hurst and a list of top politicians.
O'Brien said: "To get to the top, you've got to aim for the top.
"We wanted someone of profile to show that we'd done what we said we'd do.
"But while I might have been the driving force, I wouldn't have achieved anything without the help of the people around me."
These include founding members Gary Gillot, Alan Green, Colin Nicholls and Bill Nobbs, who famously got the ball rolling sitting around a dining room table one night in 1985, when they all contributed one pound to the kitty.
Accountant Graham Fanko came on board shortly afterwards to handle the finances of what became a £200,000-project.
O'Brien said: "The Centre has also been grateful for the support from the local authority. They were one of the first in the country to give 100 per cent rate relief to a sports club, which has been a massive contributing factor in our success."
The offer was made in 1990 and has effectively saved the club £200,000 since then.
O'Brien said: "What we did set a benchmark for future clubs and it took a long, long time for anything to come close to it.
"I still go back and take the odd class, and am proud that it's beeen such a success story because clubs like ours are important to the community beyond belief, more so now than ever.
"Unfortunately it's the deliquents who wreck the community that get all the attention, while young people that achieve, and their coaches, helpers and parents who give up their time for free, don't get the recognition they deserve.
"But the future is still bright. There are still people out there determined to achieve in spite of the adversity."
l High Wycombe Judo Centre is one of ten sites in the county bidding to become an Olympic training centre for London 2012.
It has history. The British Judo team has trained at Wycombe Judo Centre off and on for 20 years, and the country's most successful Olympic judo team trained there before Barcelona 1992 - when Wycombe's own Ray Stevens won silver.
The club has also hosted a number of other national teams.
O'Brien said: "I had the ambition to turn it into an Olympic training centre from day one.
"The likelihood of not getting a national team training here is remote because we have just about the best facilites in the country."
FONTE (photo include): This is Local London - UK
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