Greetings from Scotland.

I have vivid memories and sometimes nightmares when recalling Mad Milner and his assistant Marauder Josh Johnson visiting Scotland in the late seventies, they were brought up to Edinburgh by Ken Grant Sensei 4th Dan Shukokai for a weekend training course.
The raw energy and power of the man was unbelievable, we had not seen Karate performed in such a practical way until then.
The first days training decimated the class all throwing up in the toilets whilst trying to keep up with what they called the warm up, the Kata and the Bunkai was a revelation, they actually made it work.
Having survived the first day we took them to the Tattoo and then proceeded to pour drams of Scotland’s finest down their throats in the hope that it would slow them down and hopefully they would sleep in, Phil had the constitution of an Ox and drank everything put before him.
Sunday: No such luck they were up bright and early and training in the garden when we went down to pick them up.
Word had got round and they were Karate practitioners from all corners of Bonnie Scotland gathered in the sports centre.
I think Phil had been reading Mas Oyamas book on the Kyokushinkai 100 man kumite because without a warm up the class started with an ear splitting Kiiai and we were all knelt down and the two madmen stood in the centre of the floor and had us all up fighting for our lives one after the other, it was exhilarating and frightening at the same time, a few of us even got back in line for a second go but I think they twigged what was going on when the lines weren’t getting any shorter, one of the best training sessions I have ever attended, I later took up cage fighting as a safer alternative to ever meeting those two again.
What they taught me has stood me in great stead over the years “Stand your ground, never back up and never give up”.
Ossu.