Stokenchurch Judo Club was formed after local residents had seen a judo display at Stokenchurch Fire Station Open Day.

The Club first opened their doors on February 2nd 1982 in the drama room of Bartholomew Tipping Secondary School with a borrowed mat and Ron Cleere and Leon Stratford as the coaches. Not long after Nigel Grunwell joined us. Ron and Nigel are still the Club’s main coaches.

On the first night over 100 children, of all ages, turned up at the door, consequently we needed to have two nights training to accommodate everyone. We continued happily in the Drama Hall until the main youth club decided that they needed to extend into the area and we migrated to the main hail. In October 1983 with the help of the parents we were able to purchase a new mat and we stayed quite happily in the school hail until the closure of the school in 1988.

The Club then moved to Stokenchurch First School where we stayed until the building of the new Stokenchurch Community Centre on the Bartholomew Tippings site was completed and we returned to our roots in 1991 and to this day we are still there practicing twice a week. The Centre has now been renamed The Stokenchurch Centre.

At the official opening of the new premises members of the Club had the honour of performing for his Highness the Duke of Gloucester.

Our most successful judo player is Angharad Sweet. Angharad was a member of the
British squad, she was the first recipient of the Steve Redgrave Bursary in April 2001
and went on to win a silver medal, competing for Wales, at the 2002 Commonwealth
Games held in Manchester.

In May 2002 the Club was invited to join Berkshire Golden Youth Festival held at Bisham Abbey to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee where they did judo demonstrations with some members being lucky enough to be presented to the Queen.

Stokenchurch Judo Club caters for everyone. Currently we have a small group of players with special needs (Down’s Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Autism and learning difficulties) who are integrated with the mainstream judo players. These players are encouraged to compete in competition, some having travelled to Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia and Finland as well as Scotland and Wales.

In August 2007 the Club was successful in achieving the Bronze Level of the British Judo Association Club Recognition Scheme and the Sport England Clubmark.Currently we have a thriving junior section but not too many seniors. Those seniors that we have practise with the older seniors.