Part 3 (1/2)

As I walked frons of disrespect for people of round everywhere In the short time since I had raffiti and National Front stickers that were plastered over es Most of this activity was due to local council elections, and as part of its carants for every social ill Rising unemployment and crime levels and the poor state of the health service were all supposedly the fault of people likeparents It made me furious and frustrated, as I had yet to see anyone actually putting up a National Front poster, or scrawl one of their slogans: like nocturnal aniht

At nine o'clock on every Sunday hbours who lived in the flat directly opposite ents in the nearby high street He was an elderly Hungarian man who did not appear to have ht when I accompanied him Often, he would have me spellbound with stories from his youth, in what he called the ”old country” Occasionally, I would try to match him with colourful events that had happened in my life but they always see the familiar clunk of his front door, I siarian accent that had never softened, despite the years he had spent in England We walked together along theand I wished bad luck on the person who had stolen yet another lightbulb froeway While aited for the lift, wekarate chopping today?” he asked, changing the subject while entle ain until next week But that doesn't stop you coive you a beating, you know” I replied jokingly Mr Kovac laughed and said he had enough trouble keeping his wife fro him when he misbehaved ”How is your wife?” I asked, ”I haven't seen her around lately”

”Her legs are playing up,” Mr Kovac replied ”They hurt soth up for her visit to Hungary next week”

”Are you going too?” I asked

He answered falteringly, ”Hungary is o back”

His face showed signs of great pain, and I decided not to inquire about why he could not return From our previous conversations, I knew Mr Kovac still carried the scars of experiences froer days and they werefor?”

”Teeks Her sister died recently”

The lift doors opened and I sa dried blood speckled its walls I took a hesitant step inside, chilled by the sight

”It's only a little blood It won't hurt I saw plenty of blood as a young man Some of it was the blood of my friends,” Mr Kovac said, as he pushed the button for the ground floor

”What's all this?” I asked, seeing what I thought was more than 'a little blood'

Mr Kovac looked at me quizzically, and then he said, ”Probably frothemselves or each other”

”You mean those skinheads?”

”Yes, those poor boys covered in all those tattoos They are lost souls”

”I can't believe you call them 'poor boys' I hate them,” I snarled ”If they had their way, I would not even be in this country And believe you er in my voice the old man shook his head ”You don't understand what I said They should be pitied; they are being used by others They are not so different from you or h the cracks of society and they are often pushed to express the, they are uneducated”

”These skinheads are all in the NF and want to hurt innocent people,” I protested ”You know the Front was trying to organize a march the other day, just to stir upthat Mr Kovac did not always understand norant of the real world,” he said ”They, like sopeople, only know the little world they see and live in And isn't England a country of free speech? Maybe it is better to let them march and vent their frustration that way”

The lift doors slid open ”But you shouldn't be free to stir up hatred with lies,” I said

”Yes, yes, I agree,” said Mr Kovac, as he moved stiffly beside me, ”I've seen it all before in my country with the Jews They felt they could not assimilate with other people because they were hated by a few, but their religious beliefs kept them separate too This kind of separation feeds on itself, it feeds suspicion and gives one group a reason to hate the other and stay apart And so nize that we share the same humanity until it is too late”

We walked in silence for the rest of the short journey to the shop We had our newspapers and wereour way back to the flats as I continued to try and work out if I agreed with or even properly understood what Mr Kovac had said The lights of a pelican crossing changed for us and a car pulled up; I was still figuring out how I should reply to hi the road, and did I not pay much attention to it A blast of 'Land of Hope and Glory' froe speaker horns on the car's roof startled me and turned my head A call of: ”ENGLAND FOR THE ENGLISH REPATRIATE NOW!” accolared at the er seat who held the ave way to a gri at him, I experienced a similar hatred to the one I had previously felt for the skinhead leaving the lift But now there were no boxes inI turned and spat onto the car's bonnet The two er Ihand grabbed ed hbour asked, ”Are you a special kind of stupid? Can you not see they are taunting you, to get you to reactI've seen it all before with the nazis Nothing changes”

We reached the other side of the road as the car continued to spew its venolad that Mr Kovac had intervened to stop the situation frohts, he said, ”Don't let theht to move away You could not have won Maybe you could punch them around but the courts would make sure you lost” Passers-by, who had witnessed the incident, were staring at aze of a ht in other ways,” continued Mr Kovac ”They are out because there is an election; if you really want to stop them then make sure you vote for one of the parties who oppose thehbour could tell by istered to vote He rested a hand on , Ralph, and one day you will find out that not even your karate will allow you to win every fight”

It would be soht Mr Kovac had been during that Sundaywalk

Chapter Nine

Without the correct principle the fight cannot be won

Miyamoto Musashi+ The Wind Book

MY FIRST FORAY to a foreign land was to Scotland, and as we set off thatI really did not knohat to expect The journey Clinton, Leslie and I h ere travelling halfway across the globe and several time zones to a location that should have been a lot et there Leslie could not keep still and spent e, but Clinton was a lotout at the flickering countryside As ti while I watched how he impassively stared out of the , as if he were completely oblivious to h I had known him most of his life he had never been easy to read He could do soroup of men ere armed with clubs, as he had done ere kids, was by no means the most peculiar But more recently he had withdrawn not only from me, but other family members and friends, especially Leslie At least I could always get some response from him, with a bit of effort, but there were tinore everyone else around hi on my mind for some tioing to get soot to my feet immediately, but Clinton did not respond until I touched his shoulder and asked if he were co with us His head turned slowly and then jerked back as if he were surprised to seefor some food, Clint?” I asked hiry Leslie grumpily told me to leave him to starve He had always been low on eht a taxi to the hotel that had been mentioned in our letters As the driver chatted incessantly, in an accent that none of us understood, the three of us took in the sights They did not leave us greatly is appear gri Once at the hotel, ere allocated rooiven a sheaf of papers that included a timetable, directions to the stadium and a list of prohibited activities One which stuck inthe hotel after 5pm; but the list of restrictions only served to remind me that this was no holiday excursion

Once we had deposited our bags in our rooave us a welcome that contrasted with the cold and drab afternoon We had headed north thinking of ourselves as representing the YMCA, but as the evening wore on, it was obvious that our hosts saw us as part of the people they referred to as the 'Auld Enee that was to be sewn onto the jacket ofh I had thrown mine into the rubbish bin, I was still identified as aforce' that the Scots told us they would take great pleasure in repelling As a few more drinks were downed by our hosts, it beca 'part of the eneht-hearted banter: there was real venos of a land, I had never considered lish Neither Clinton nor Leslie seemed to be troubled in the saland under-21 team was simply an opportunity to enhance our competition skills and to compete at European junior championshi+ps They were confident that the Scots would not be iven its small population, had always been disproportionately successful at karate Jeroreat respect about his Scottish team-mates in the British squad, such as the world champions Jim Collins and Pat McKay While he had beaten Hamish Adam (who had been a member of the team that had won the world championshi+ps in 1975) to win his first European Wado Ryu title, Jeroht the iven hihter named Davy Coulter, and Declan Byrne recount how the five-foot-eight Scot had downed a German opponent, as at least a foot taller, with one of the best techniques he had ever seen perfor day, as we headed off to the coe pigeon dropping splashed onto reat amusement for Clinton and Leslie all the way to the stadium, but I just hoped that it was not a bad omen

Before a competition, it was standard procedure to report to a doctor for a very basic ht My heart rate was deemed to be very slow, but that was not out of the ordinary for so colours, but there was a problem with Clinton Shortly after his blood pressure was checked, he began to complain of pains in his chest and lay down on the floor The doctor exa However, after a brief consultation with the competition's officials, Clinton was told that he would not be allowed to fight and that he should get a thorough medical checkup once he was back ho unsettledhis nerve, but I knew that could not be the case Physically, at least, Clinton was about as fearless as any person I had ever met, to the point when he had at tiard for his own safety Like the rest of his fa' that hter He was still on ht

Roared on by a partisan crowd, the Scottish coe of thewas only a secondary consideration for them, the main objective was to dish out as much punishment to the 'Sassenachs' as the rules would allow

Although it was not without its uncomfortable moments, I revelled in the hostile ated to win all my bouts But the same could not be said for all ofof being part of a losing side I was also a little bruised My first taste of international competition had been a painful re I needed to prepare for the European cha our trip to Scotland, Clinton did not visit his doctor to find out the cause of his chest pains Before he had left for home an official had told him that if he were to compete at the European under-21 championshi+ps he would first have to produce aabout ain, and I started to think that perhaps Leslie had been right and Clinton had siet to him and he had te his doctor ht have been due to an awareness on his part that there was nothing physically wrong Certainly, there was nothing to prevent hier still re it to s he had on it I orried er shared my ambition to succeed in the coetting back to our harsh training routine, much like how our cousin Errol had never returned to the dojo once he had discovered girls and cars Taka karate easy, then you are not doing karate Karate training is hard, unnaturally hard, and it becomes a constant battle in which the mind has to overcome the body's inclination to take the path of least resistance the method which involves less pain and effort Many of the karateka I kneho had finished co did so after an injury, or after a su turned into aday ours of the dojo that bit more difficult, until it finally became impossible to return Clinton had been told to rest for a couple of weeks, which had already turned into three, and I was deter before it beca the only activity in which one has to overco distance runners have to confront their bodies' aversion to being tested to the limits over ht it no coincidence that the greatest karate competitor I knew, Jerome Atkinson, had also run a nu have a lot in common as it is as much about the condition of the et Clinton training again was to get him to run with an running froood athlete that if he wanted, he could talk effortlessly while running, but as we headed through the prosperous suburbs his gri on inside his head Perhaps his quietness was of an easy, companionable sort, or perhaps it was an indication of his deterwith Clinton but it was so awful that I spent a lot of , particularly when the cousin I knew reappeared However, the Clinton I had known since ere both small kids see our train journey to Scotland, I wanted to ask him about his state of mind, but I did not kno to broach the subject without offending hiow continued to concern me, but every time I wavered, my doubts and fears were pushed back further into a recess in my an to accelerate, and made it clear that her level It was the one weak link in er than I had ever been and I had learnt during the fights with the Scottish competitors that if I wanted to succeed at an international level, it was necessary to concentrate on i my techniques by way of eventhe six-ramme I had devised to increase my stamina

My pace quickened to s were pu seconds ere rapt in the exuberance of our own physicality until I suddenly realized that the gate that kept the beast of number 52 at bay had been left open Our feet thundered on the concrete; ere going too fast to stop Every time we had run past nu viciously So to attack only black people, but it was not until the day a blonde, pear-shaped wo suit had a so much as a yap that it occurred to me that the brute did reserve its performance for black passers-by Or maybe it simply smelled my fear Before I had ti a speed I never knew I possessed, I left Clinton behind; but the German Shepard chose to stay on my heels I was across the road and without a second's hesitation, or looking for the traffic, I scra teeth closed in, I cli turned its attention to Clinton But he was putting what I later described asa wooden fencing pole fro away, Clinton screaed tore mutt see phenomenon and then turned tail as the pole made contact with its backside With aand its owners as it fled back to the sanctuary of its own yard Dropping the fencing pole, and without a second glance at me perched on top of the car, Clinton continued with his run

Before the dog had a chance to rediscover its courage, or the owner of the car caught sight of e I had caused, I scampered off the deeply dented roof and sprinted to catch up with Clinton It took some distance before I reached him and as I drew level he stopped suddenly

”What's up, Clint?” I asked, as he folded and gripped his knees His whole body was shaking, and I i sohtened that I realized that it was laughter that had sent hi for air, he said, ”Do you reed man?”

It was an incident at a tournaland that all those who had watched it could hardly forget Leslie had been drawn against a young , and the referee had approached Leslie before the contest to ask if he would make it more of an exhibition bout as the youth had entered the co a disability rather than with any real notion of winning Leslie nodded, but when the bout began he made it into an exhibition of his ruthlessness Within seconds he had swept the artificial leg from beneath the youth and followed up with a punch as his opponent lay spreadeagled on the mat He did this not once but twice, to the horror of his instructor, his teaht When I later asked him why he had been so cruelly efficient he replied, ”He wanted to be treated just like any other person, didn't he? So, I treated the guy like everyone else And besides, I wasn't going to take any chance of losing to no one-foot boy because I took it easy”

”But, Les,” I began to protest