Show No Fear: A Bouncer's Diary by Bill Carson

the air. The club was full of Welsh rugby supporters that had made the long journey down to London to watch their team take on the English at Twickenham. (Which they lost by the way). Right at the beginning of the evening we notice that three lads are involved in a bit of a scuffle at the bar, which was five deep with rugby fans. I had seen one of them before and I remembered he had a bit of an attitude problem the last time he was here. I go in with Simon and try and calm the situation. The problem was being caused by a local self-styled hard nut, apparently he had been involved in some sort of altercation earlier on but we hadn’t seen what had happened so we give him and his two mates the benefit of the doubt. We went back to the front doors and kept an eye on the three lads from a distance. As I look over towards the bar area the taller of the three gives one of the Rugby supporters a punch in the side of the jaw he goes to the floor and scrambles up to his feet and runs outside. Who does this geezer think he is? Once again Simon and I go in leaving the other two lads on the front doors, but it’s a different attitude from us this time. You three are leaving I say to them, they ignore what I say or they may not of heard me say it, owing to the noise. The taller one of the three punches a guy who is standing at the bar waiting to be served, right in front of us. This bloke’s a bit of a nutter I thought to myself. That old familiar adrenaline rush is making its presence felt big time. We both step in and a scuffle begins, the tall fella turns around and is about to throw his tried and tested right hand punch at me. After a few of these types of confrontations sometimes you can anticipate what is about to happen and counter your attacker. After all I had just seen him throw two right handers my guess is he’ll be throwing another one but you have to look for the signs, that’s where your training comes in. I see his shoulder move back slightly, with his right hand cocked, he also carried his left very low I move off to the right a fraction away from his right and deliver my own right-hander, which lands smack on the point of his chin. The blow knocks him backward four or five feet and onto a table, Simon drags him up to his feet. I say to Simon to get him around the neck and take him outside but he couldn’t manage it the problem being that this guy is about six two and Simon is about five nine. I didn’t want to move forward because I’ve got his two mates either side of me. I have them both in my peripheral vision; they are just waiting for the opportunity to do something the moment my back is turned. It’s a bit of a ball’s up, and where are the other two lads I thought? My guess is that they can’t see what is going on due to the crowds and no radios are in use here either (a communication breakdown). Meanwhile Simon and this fella are engaged in a scuffle, against my better judgement I go in to give him a hand. I had an idea what was going to happen so I was ready for them, as soon as I went forward one of them jumps on my back. That’s it I’ve had enough of these people, they have clearly arrived here with one thing on their minds… trouble and they thought they could come here to bully, frighten and intimidate people. I grab the guy’s arm which is around my neck and execute a really good Judo throw on him, he goes right over my shoulder and for a moment I thought he was going to go through the large plate glass window that over looked the high street. Luckily he lands on a table with a crash scattering and smashing the bottles and glasses as he lands. He must have knocked himself out because I didn’t see him get up. This is all happening extremely fast you understand, the other guy decides to have ago and he also jumps on my back and starts to strangle me from behind, he’s not doing a bad job either and he had a really good grip around my neck.
I could feel myself becoming light headed and my