Mission accomplished: (left to right) Liam Brady (fourth degree black belt) from Dublin, Andy Bourgaize (first), Richard Matthews (sixth) from Jersey, Martin McLoughlin (first) from Jersey and Gerry Lynch (third) from Belfast. (0630079)

A LOCAL man who turned his basement into a dojo has earned the island’s first black belt in kenpo karate.

Builder Andy Bourgaize, 42, was fed up of trying to find gyms and sport halls to be able to run his Guernsey Kenpo Karate Club, so he converted the basement at his L’Eree house into a fully functional 40ft by 13ft dojo. And now, after training for 10 years, he has managed to pass his black belt examination.

‘It’s been a long time coming,’ he said. ‘It’s been quite hard having to learn things out of books and videos and going over to Jersey. I’m glad to finally get there.’

Bourgaize has been practising martial arts, namely shotokan karate and ju-jitsu, for 22 years. He has a black belt in the latter as well that was awarded to him in 1999.

He explained that kenpo karate is an American style of karate whereby all the terminology is in English.