Steve Milsted, I Dont Believe It !!!!!!!

Above photo - Some of our members who were there on the night, 

Robert Stuart, Liam Banks, Roy White, Leon Milner, Ellie Hutton, Steve Milsted, Steve's nephew Chris.

It was Monday 3rd September 2012 and Steve Milsted walked into our dojo, it had been so long since we had last seen each other that  I didn't even recognise him.  Steve and I first met in 1975 when we both trained at Marine Park Judo Club, Hadrian Road, Wallsend.  Eventually on the 3rd May 1976 ten of us left Marine Park and founded the Bushido Judo Kwai.  In 1977 we had seven of our junior members qualify for the International Budo Federation European Schools Judo Championship in Frankfurt Germany.  The idea was for the club to pay for everyone but we were £200 short, not a problem for Steve, he did a sponsored run from Morpeth to Newcastle and raised the money.  We did very well when Steve Brown won Gold in his event and when we arrived back home we were on BBC Look North.
Steve Milsted had qualified as a chef and went to work at the Intercontinental Hotel, Flensburg, Germany. During that time Steve sent me some money to buy a trophy for the junior members to compete for annually, and that would go to the person who ended the year at the top of our medal table.  This proved to be very popular and even improved their judo, as the kid's were desperate to get into every competition that we were invited to, Jan Russell was the first member to win the Steve Milsted Award.
Eventually Steve emigrated to Australia and after many years I was able to make contact with him through Barry McSherry who as a junior himself had won the award three times.  In September Steve returned to England for one week to visit his Mum and Dad.  Brother Ian, who had also been a member of the club told Steve that he had a surprise for him and that was a visit to the Bushido Judo Kwai and what a surprise it was for me.
Thanks to Ian for making this happen.