Sport – Nicholas Walker

Agony on the Ice

Nicholas Walker — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:35:01 +0000

It was a sunny day but Samantha was past feeling anything. The garden was very large and she wandered off down to where the pond was, there were chairs there and she was still feeling exhausted, she was flushing the sleeping pills Dr Lewis had prescribed down the toilet every night. There was a large swinging garden chair by the pond but when she reached it someone was already sitting in it. She froze and Alex rose to his feet. ‘What the hell?’ she demanded. ‘I thought I’d drop round,’ he said, trying to find something innocuous to say. ‘I told you to stay away,’ she said, ‘I told everybody I didn’t want to see you!’ ‘I wanted to see you.’ ‘Would you just go? Please.’ ‘This isn’t fair,’ he said. He tried to walk towards her but stopped when she flinched away from him. He spread his hands in appeal, ‘You owe me more than this.’ ‘I don’t owe you anything! We were partners, that’s all. Skating partners and now that’s all over and done.’ ‘We were more than that and you know it. I love you.’ ‘Well, I don’t love you! I don’t even like you.’ She held her head in her hands, ‘Just sod off why don’t you?’ ‘You’re my fiancée, we’re supposed to be getting married, planning our wedding.’ ‘Marry you? I’m not going to marry you!’ it was almost a snarl. She wrenched at the ring on her finger that he had given her, his grandmother’s ring, the expensive one. It stuck and she had to use her teeth and she finally dragged it free leaving her finger bleeding. She hurled it savagely at him and it bounced off his chest and into the flower beds. ‘Now just sod off!’ she said, and she turned and bolted back towards the house.

The Way To Wimbledon

Nicholas Walker — Sun, 09 May 2021 00:29:52 +0000

Penny gritted her teeth. She had lost the first set and was 4 – 5 down in the second. This new girl only had to hold her serve to take the match. But Penny had been there before, there was no way she was going to let this tournament slip away from her. Her opponent, Moira Lloyd-Roberts, was waiting placidly at the base line as Penny took up her position, standing well back, praying that just for once this remarkable service would break down. Moira served, the ball dipped over the net, hit the very inside of the service court and was gone. Penny blinked. She had hardly seen it, let alone got around to playing a shot. ‘15 – love,’ said the umpire. Penny trooped over to the other side but the same thing happened again and it was the third service before she even got her racquet to the ball. She returned it cross court and, as usual, Moira waited on the base line and just pushed it back over the net. Penny came charging in and volleyed and Moira lobbed it beautifully over Penny’s head into the very back of the court. ‘Out,’ shouted the girl who was the line judge on Penny’s side, but she wasn’t in the best position to see because there was only one line judge per side. Penny relaxed and waited for the score to be called. The umpire cleared his throat. ‘No, the ball was good,’ he said. ‘40 – love.’ ‘What?’ demanded Penny. ‘It was called out.’ ‘The ball was good,’ the umpire repeated. ‘Play on, please.’ ‘It looked out to me and I’m nearer than you,’ Penny protested. ‘At least play a let.’ ‘The ball was good!’ the umpire said, this time more sternly. Penny marched over to him. Moira was still standing behind her base line, idly bouncing a ball on her racquet. ‘Now listen here,’ Penny said angrily. ‘You can’t do that now. It makes it match point!’ ‘I can’t take into consideration what stage the match has reached,’ the umpire said. ‘Now, if you don’t play on I’ll have to award a penalty point.’ ‘A penalty point? On match point!’ Penny stormed. ‘Why, you, you…’

The Way To Wimbledon

Nicholas Walker — Fri, 07 May 2021 00:20:43 +0000

The Boy Who Was Afraid of Heights & Barnaby Cole: Detective!

Nicholas Walker — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 01:35:25 +0000

She steered her canoe expertly into the centre channel and immediately Tom followed. He felt the water grip his canoe and rush it along. He gasped and tried to slow himself with his paddle, but it was no use. The canoe swept between two huge rocks, plunged down a short rapid and ended up in a big calm pool. Suzy was right beside him, and she grinned at him. ‘Bet that had you worried,’ she said. ‘Not a bit.’ ‘Liar, you almost overturned.’ ‘I was perfectly safe, thank you,’ he said coldly. ‘So, you didn’t really need me, then?’ ‘I’m sure I would have managed,’ he said, stung by her attitude. ‘Yeah?’ ‘Yeah!’ ‘Well, manage this then.’ She gave his canoe what seemed a slight push with her paddle and immediately his canoe turned turtle. Tom found himself sitting upside down in the water, then he started to fall out. Tom could swim quite well, so he dived down right under Suzy’s canoe and came up on the other side. She was staring down into the water making sure he’d got out. ‘Looking for me?’ Tom chirped. Then he gave her canoe a push and she went over as well. Suzy’s canoe stayed upside down for a second, then it turned the right way up again as she demonstrated a perfect Eskimo roll. The grin was still on her face, the only difference was that now it was framed by soaking wet hair. ‘Very flash, I bet you can’t do that again,’ Tom said, treading water. Suzy took a deep breath and rolled over again. Only this time, Tom put his hand on the bottom of the canoe so she couldn’t roll upright. After a moment she surfaced beside him, gasping like a guppy. ‘Ratbag,’ she spluttered, but she didn’t seem put out. ‘Well, you told me to do everything you did,’ Tom said, swimming to his canoe. ‘You seem to have got rather wet,’ he added, unable to resist the wisecrack. ‘It was worth it to see you laugh,’ she said, good-naturedly.

Kicking the Crap Out of the Martial Arts

Nicholas Walker — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 21:02:23 +0000

This book is an analysis of the Martial Arts by a serious scientist and teacher. Nick Walker (Ph.D. MPhil. Dr.Ed. (AU) BA (Hons) (OU) BSc. (Hons) (OU) BSc.Ed (Hons) (Exon) NASM 6th Dan Karate AMA 1st Dan Jiu Jitsu) has been teaching Karate for over thirty years and is the founder and Chief Instructor of Kernow Karate the most successful independent martial arts organisation in the world. He is also a High School teacher and University Professor and is highly qualified in science. He has a degree from The National Academy of Sports Medicine in California and is a licensed fitness coach, a registered weight training instructor and a insured personal trainer. Nick makes his living by writing bestselling novels and now, despairing of all the pseudo nonsense that pervades the martial arts, all the old wives’ tales and nonsense science that damage the sport, Nick has finally responded by writing this non-fiction book so that other instructors who are genuinely interested in the science of the martial arts can bring themselves up to date…to become a Kernow Karate instructor you have to know all that is in this book! Nick takes all the basics and applies basic science to them: the stances, do they work? The Warm Up, is it necessary? What does it do? How to make your kicks and punches more powerful. How to break, how to do the Three Inch Punch, how to stretch. Does breathing matter? How does shouting effect the blow? He then goes on to explore how to improve martial arts moves: how to make your kicks and punches faster. How to make them harder. How to anticipate when an opponent is going to hit you and where. Proper scientific training techniques that the Olympic athletes all use. In the last third of the book Nick discusses the teaching of sport, the techniques and strategies that professional teachers have spent four years of university learning and he shows how most instructors are wasting the majority of their lesson time. He attempts to bring our most researched skill (education) into the martial arts: what is the attention span of an eight year old boy? What is the attention span of an eight year old girl? How best to teach a move…show it? Talk about it? Do it? Read about it? The answers will surprise and probably horrify those of you who are not professional teachers. He shows how to discipline, how to dominate a class without getting them to hate you, how mere body language can freeze an entire room. How to keep the members interested and the kids coming. And lastly, he shows you the dangers of teaching sport: how certain moves can injure a child but not an adult. Long term damage of the body. How to recognise certain illnesses and how to cope with them. How to protect yourself from inappropriate allegations. A serious book, written in a very light hearted, easy to read manner…an essential aid to anyone who wants to become a good instructor.

Black Belt

Nicholas Walker — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:35:59 +0000

William swept his arm down and Jaimey went with it. She came screaming across the floor, leapt into the air and delivered a punch that deposited Terry flat on his back. ‘Now this is no time to have a lie down,’ Jaimey said. ‘What the hell do you think you’re playing at?’ William demanded. Terry was getting to his feet, blood pouring from his nose. ‘C’mon guv, I was just showing them how to score.’ ‘That’s not how to score and a blue belt should know that, you’d be disqualified anywhere for lack of control.’ Jaimey turned two huge brown eyes on William. ‘Honest guv, he ran onto it,’ she said innocently. ‘He must be Usain Bloody Bolt then,’ William said. He tried to examine Terry’s nose but the green belt shook his head and disappeared into the changing rooms. Sensei was still leaning on the wall, watching. William pointed a finger at Jaimey. ‘You: fifty push-ups,’ he said. ‘Without the gloves!’ Jaimey regarded him for a long moment. Everybody fell silent, feeling the clash of wills. A black belt carries authority and this was normal club discipline but, after all, it was William’s first night. At last Jaimey put her head on one side and smiled. ‘I can tell we’re going to get on,’ she said. Then, tossing her gloves into the corner, she started doing push-ups. Sensei smiled and wandered away. William started another two fighters, then Jaimey was standing at his side. ‘Fifty, guv,’ she saluted him. ‘The name’s William.’ ‘Righto guv, I’ll make a note of it.’ ‘You do go to school, don’t you?’ William asked. ‘On and off.’ She grinned. ‘And at this school do they teach Maths?’ ‘You know, I’ll bet you’re going to come to the point in a minute,’ she said brightly. ‘That was thirty eight, not fifty.’ ‘Sorry, anything above ten and I run out of fingers.’ ‘Well, if it’s all you can manage…’ he let the statement hang in the air. Immediately Jaimey got down onto her hands. ‘I can do push-ups faster than anyone else in this club,’ she said. ‘You count.’ William dropped down beside her. ‘No,’ he said, ‘you count.’ The whole dojo had stopped to watch by now. Jaimey started off pumping vigorously but William waited until she had reached twenty five before he started. She had just reached forty eight when he finished his fifty and spun effortlessly to his feet. Jaimey sat on the floor, red-faced and gasping for breath. ‘Now I’m going to try very hard,’ she panted, ‘but I don’t think I’m going to like you.’

Kissing on Ice

Nicholas Walker — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 01:03:42 +0000

The gripping story of the four fanatical ice dancers continues taking us right up into the highest levels of the sport. Samantha is still banned from the Olympics while Benjamin and Belinda seem to be headed straight for the Gold but things start to unravel. Frustrated from her ambition Samantha turns back to dance and Alex loses his love for the ice and unbelievably it seems that the pair are on the verge of quitting, will they even remain together if they no longer skate together? Then out of the blue the world is stunned when Belinda fails a drugs test and it seems that the UK will be heading towards the most important Winter Olympics ever without any serious contenders. This, the seventh in this best-selling series, rips the top off the world of Ice Skating to reveal all the heartbreak and hard work that lies beneath and shows just what these youngsters have to go through every day of their lives for that magic four minutes out on the ice.

Skating on Thin Ice

Nicholas Walker — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 00:55:13 +0000

This is the follow up to The Ice Mountain when Benjamin and Belinda first skated together before they were World Champions in the Crackling Ice series. The two are working towards their first serious competition but the tremendous workload starts to impact on their schoolwork and both are threatened with suspension. But even more of a problem arises as they are becoming more and more fond of one another and this leads to jealousies between them and after an argument Belinda goes with Benjamin’s best friend to the school disco. Benjamin retaliates by taking Belinda’s friend and they have a massive fight and agree to look for new partners after the competition. Then Benjamin has a bad fall and is unable to skate and Belinda starts dancing with another boy. Can they bring it all together before the competition or will they split up forever? This exciting novels rips aside the glamour of the Ice Dancing world and reveals all the hard work and tears and the tremendous pressures these children live under every day of their lives!

The Ice Mountain

Nicholas Walker — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 00:45:36 +0000

Benjamin and Belinda are in the same class at school when suddenly they are thrown together as Ice Dance partners and all the classroom politics go flying out of the window. As they skate in secret from their classmates their developing relationship on the ice brings them into massive conflicts: I don’t care if you hate each other’s guts in school … out there on that ice you have to love one other! Benjamin and Belinda became famous in the Crackling Ice series and this is their very first outing! An exciting and heart-warming book.

Together on Ice

Nicholas Walker — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 11:12:28 +0000

‘Morning,’ said Alex. ‘Morning,’ said Samantha, then very hard and very deliberately she slapped him across the face. It’s not just Alex Samantha is mad at. Soon she’s lashing out at one of the judges of the Winter Olympics. Her reward for this is not only a lifetime ban but a strain on her relationship with Alex which is set to rip them apart. Can they skate without one another? Will they ever succeed alone? Or will they pull themselves together in time for the British Championships?