Dick Chipperfield Jnr – The Last Man to Work the Bouncing Lions?

This is another post dictated by my father on the subject of the Bouncing Lions. This time it features my uncle, Dicki Chipperfield both when he first presented the act, at only age 15, and when he last presented it, when Chipperfield's Circus famously toured South Africa. - Jamie Clubb

The first picture shows Dick “Dicki” Chipperfield Jnr in 1958 presenting three lionesses in the wagon cage. Dicki would have only been barely 15 years old. This was for a television show. He was stopped working by the authorities after this performance. His uncle, John Chipperfield, took the act over. Dick Snr told me they took one lioness out because the act was too slow. This shows a similar pyramid to Tommy Kayes’ act. You will notice this was in the real wagon with the correct measurements – 16’ long x 6’6” wide x 6’6” tall. The height varied from trainer to trainer, some preferred 7’ tall inside. These measurements were crucial for the “bounce” to be achieved correctly. That is the measurements of the length and the width. The height didn’t matter and, in fact, as in the case with Tommy Kayes’ this was an advantage and made a better show. These three animals didn’t bounce very much, in fact, hardly at all. When John Chipperfield took over and later Terry Duggan they really went up the side of the cage.

The second picture shows Dicki in South Africa in 1965 with a very simply built cage. These lions really did bounce up the side and in the same fashion as Kayes and Dicki’s father, Dick Chipperfield Snr. Unfortunately I have no photographs of Dicki’s father in his early days working the bouncing act, only entering the cage with “Old Vic”, Tommy Purchase’s lioness. I have one of him when he originally trained the act for his son, but it only shows the two lionesses sat in the corner and Dicki’s father knelt down. I will post it when I find it. - Jim Clubb

Learning from students, teaching the teachers

These days I try to keep my mainly martial arts related work separate from work produced on this blog unless it concerns a book I am writing. Today I kind of broke that rule, as it is also being used to promote my second book "When Parents Aren't Around". Kwoklyn Wan, brother of famous TV fashion personality Gok Wan, is the martial arts entrapaneur behind the Martial Arts Festival or MAF UK, to be held in Leicester on 4th and 5th April. I was kindly invited to teach my Clubb Chimera Martial Arts system on two workshops at the event. The following is an article I wrote for the festival's programme, which will be featured opposite Gok Wan's work with Kidscape, an important children's charity raising awareness and dealing with child bullying.

The short article is a brief edit of the series I wrote a couple of years back for Martial Arts Illustrated. It describes how I learnt from teaching children how to get the best out of students. Martial arts are sadly often bound up in rituals and conveyor belt money-making schemes with little thought regarding how to get the most out of students. The focuse seems to be on those who made a success of a certain style and everything else is geared towards venerating and emulating the masters of old without considering the principles the art was founded on or the needs of those wishing to learn. At CCMA I have done my best not just to turn this outmoded method of teaching on its head, but also to bring it into alignment with other effective proactive teaching technologies.

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