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Doug started the nineties by being invited to join the English Karate Referees Commission formed by Chief Referee Terry Pottage to help train and develop our English Officials. Martial Arts in the UK was by now a very serious sport and this was reflected by Dougs ourstanding 6th Dan Black Belt award in 1993 He opened Leisure/Fitness Centre in Carlisle 'City Fit' with son Steven managing the business and opened new club in Dumfries. Still retaining his interest for Karate in the North of England he founded the Northern Open Championships, near Darlington, Co Durham while allowing his international responsibilities to grow. He officiated at European Junior Champs and European Senior Champs in Germany, the European Cup of Clubs in Yugoslavia and the Villa- De Madrid International Trophy in Spain. Doug achieved a World Judge qualification at the World Senior Championships in Spain. He went on to Officiate at European Senior Championships in Holland, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Tenerife, Yugoslavia and Greece, Malaysia, Germany and South Africa, and the European Junior Championships in Wales, Spain and Turkey. The Karate for everyone message was still important resulting in the production of a second training video entitled Beginning Wado Ryu Karate. Doug worked hard to continually develop VMA, along with Tim Eyrl , and expanded production to include all Karate Styles and Martial Arts including work by Hee II Cho, Bill Wallace, Dan Inosanto, Ohtsuka II etc. As the reputation for quality grew so did the list of clients which included instructional and training work for Sports channels on BBC,ITV, SKY as well as catching the atttention of celebrities such as, Jackie Chan, Barry McGuigan, John Fashanu, Geoff Capes and Comedy Actor Norman Wisdom. Doug concluded the millenium and an excellent martial arts decade with the award of World Referee status at the World Senior Championships in Rio, Brazil in 1998. |
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