Gary Spiers was a giant New Zealander who gave his life to martial arts, and one of the most capable fighters of his kind the world has seen. With men like Terry O'Neill he pioneered fighting that worked on the street, not just in the dojo: karate, wrestling, jujitsu and street fighting. People who knew him remember his intelligence, his dry humour and his good manners. In interviews he was also open about the violence he dealt out.
He taught applied karate in Liverpool, turned young men into hard doormen and put them on contracts he won in Liverpool, Southport and Blackpool.
The wedding
This story comes from Dennis Martin's book Working with Warriors, in Spiers's own words. The book places it in Southport, though it also says some places were changed. Spiers was on a rare night off at a friend's wedding. In town at the same time was a firm said to be from Glasgow, leaning on landlords for protection money, with a couple of good boxers among them.
Some of the wedding party picked up drinks from the Scottish table by mistake, and it went off. Within seconds the bride had been knocked out and several guests were on the floor. Spiers stepped in, and at least seven of them came at him.
"None of them standing"
"Every time I saw a vulnerable point, a throat, an eye, a joint or a groin, I hit it," Spiers said. "I was not put on the ground at any time." He came away with a cut over his eye. Every one of them went to hospital, some for several days.
The best part of the story came at the end. With nobody left standing, Spiers went to the washroom to clean the blood off before the police arrived. Out came the biggest of the crew, shouting something he could not make out and pointing at his face. Spiers took it as a challenge and hit him twice more, with a palm heel strike and an elbow. He found out later that he had already broken the man's jaw, and the man had been in the toilet trying to line his teeth back up.
Five days later, the hospital said he was still in considerable discomfort after his operations.
Gary Spiers has since died, and many of his own memoirs were lost with him.