My first experience of a real live kick-boxing fight happened 3 years ago. At that time, Dad was working for a computer company who demanded that he relocate over 80 miles away or be deemed to have resigned. As it happened, in the end we never managed to sell the house and Dad got made redundant anyway. Anyhow, Dad and Mum had gone off to the rush-rush overcrowded congested overpriced Thames Valley to see what sort of hovel we could afford if we could sell the house. None of us were very happy about it.

Myself and my younger sister Jackie had been left in the care of Mr. and Mrs. Chan who were the parents of Jackie’s friend Ling. Ling was a small slip of a girl, a year younger than Jackie and to be honest I never really paid her any attention, after all I hadn’t really started to notice girls yet.

When we arrived at their house, we were herded out into the back garden. Ling was there in a blue tracksuit kicking a tree with a very thick rough bark with her bare feet. “This is how we kick-boxers toughen feet up” she explained as she continued to hammer the tree, shaking the poor thing about “Want to try Bobby?”. I declined the offer, it didn’t seem like a good idea. “What’s this about kick-boxing?” I asked. “Ling does kick-boxing” Jackie explained “she’s very good”. “Want to fight Bobby?” Ling asked between hammering the defenceless tree with graceful sweeping kicks. I thought that wouldn’t be a good idea either, although she was only an infant, I didn’t want to risk it.

Luckily before the girls could pursue the matter, Mr. Chan called us “We go now children, into the car”. I enquiringly at Jackie. “Oh did I forget to tell you” she smiled sweetly “Ling’s fighting in the finals today and we’re going to watch”. No wonder she forget to say anything, she knew Mum and Dad would never agree, them being pacifists and all that.

On the short drive to the venue, Mr. Chan explained how he had encouraged his little girl to take an interest in the martial arts that were so much part of the tradition and culture of his country. He told us how proud he was that his little girl worked so hard that she had reached the finals for the class. “You should do martial arts too Jackie” he told my sister “Very good for building confidence, fitness and self-defence”. Jackie didn’t seemed interested being so much into gymnastics. I breathed a sigh of relief - the last thing I wanted was my younger sister turning into some sort of female Bruce Lee and using me for practice!.

“Mr. Chan, I thought kick-boxing was from Thailand not China?” I asked hoping to change the subject in case Jackie changed her mind. “Ah, well yes. But you see Bobby, small towns like this have little choice. Sensei is decent honest man, even though he is not Chinese” he gave a little chuckle “Ling learnt well. I am most pleased”.

Half an hour later we were sitting at the front of the arena which buzzed with hundreds of people all speaking at once. The excitement built up as Ling was herded into the ring by her trainer. She wore a white T-shirt that showed off her slender arms, her slender legs were covered by loose silk slacks. Her long black hair was tied back in a pony tail that only emphasised her youth. Opposite her, her opponent entered the ring. The programme said that his name was Kevin Sharpe. He was about 5’8” stockily built and wore a simple white T-shirt with white shorts. He punched his boxing gloves into each other in anticipation. A smile came to his face as he faced the petite girl, slender built standing at around 4’5”. I was going to enjoy this, the girl didn’t stand a chance, he was going to pulverise her.

The seconds left the ring, leaving the referee who called the badly mismatched combatants to the middle of the ring. I could Kevin smirking at his friends and relatives in the capacity crowd as the ref went on about a good clean fight, no doubt he was already thinking that he was junior kick-boxing regional champion. So engrossed was he in self-congratulation that he barely heard the bell signalling the start of the first, and without doubt the only round.

This was going to be easy, Kevin though as the bell rang out. Suddenly he saw a blur of motion and a small foot slammed into his face rocking his head back hard. He had hardly time to blink when the girl’s foot slammed into his face again scrambling his brains. Realising he was in danger, he blindly kicked out, his vision blurred from the blows. He hit thin air, but she didn’t hesitate. Her leg shot out like lightning down the inside of his leg driving her foot straight and deep into his gut. Instinctively Kevin started to bend forward. He could just make out the small girl stepping towards him. Lashing out with his arm, he tried to punch her in the face but she blocked it easily with her arm and hammered her knee straight into his solar plexus. Pain exploded in his middle. He would have cried out but he didn’t have time, a small boxing gloved fist caught him square on his chin and he fell to the mat. “1 ur 2 ur” he could hear someone counting but he didn’t know who. His head span wildly and black spots kept appearing and disappearing before his eyes. “5 ur 6 ur” “come on Kevin, get up, come on, she’s only a little girl for Pete’s sake” he knew that voice, now who was it?. He tried to raise himself to his elbows but the effort was too much, blackness flooded his vision and then washed over his brain.