Senior instructor and Team Dragon coach Pete Cook has hung his gloves up from fighting at competitions. His last tournament was on Sunday November 2nd 2008.

At Sunday's BBI World Championships, Pete competed in four sections. His first was the Light Continuous, fighting against a very game lad from a very strong team from Scotland. 47 year old Pete had been training hard on his agility and techniques taking the win. His next fights went the same way and at the end of the finale Pete not only took the win but was praised by the section manager for his contact and techniques. The Korean Patterns was next and Pete took a 2nd place. Up next was the semi contact and this was a 7-way affair. Pete reached the final after what he described as some of the best semi contact he had done in years. The final was against a very talented fighter from Peterborough - Joe Wright. This was an excellent fight that seemed to gather a big audience. Both fighters were looking for the weakness from each other and at the end of the fight it was 4-4 a draw. This went to 30 seconds extra time and again both fighters went well. Joe gained a point from a well delivered punch. Pete took it back, Joe took another point and as Pete went forward he scored with a back fist, but the buzzer had gone and the win went to Joe. Last section of the Day was the team Kata. With Karen Sutton having to leave early it left just Pete and Louise Nelson to compete. Team Dragon were called and with perfect timing scored high. This was not to be beaten and the Dragons took the win.

Says Pete:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank every one who has been involved in my fighting carer over the last 20 years in the Korean Patterns full, light and semi contact circuits. I will still be around - but not with gloves on. Then again, I can never say never lol!

Many thanks to Rachel, Callum, Tom, Louise, Colin and Ben for keeping me sharp and conditioned over the years. Thanks to Chris Hoyles for coaching me at times when were not fighting against each other. Thanks to Richard "Deadly Dicker" for his support over the last 8 years. There are so many people I have had the pleasure to meet and fight over the years, and I would like to thank you all.

What now? I carry on my work with the coaching of a very good and strong team. We have started to make our mark in the full contact as well as semi and light contact. We show our versatility not only in fighting but in the Kata/pattern sections as well, and we have just started to compete in MMA also, but that is early days yet.