They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks - but try telling that to martial arts experts Ernest Tuff and Robert McCracken who are both in their seventies. 

Hard-hitting grandfathers Ernest (71) and Robert (74) train at the Chujo Karate Club in Ballymoney. Sprightly Ernest trains every day and more often than not gets the better of men more than half his age.

Ernest - who as his surname suggests is pretty handy with his fists - got his first taste of karate in 1982. "I saw the club advertised in the newspaper after I had just returned from America and thought I would give it a go," he said. "I was attracted to karate as there was a discipline which no other sport has. It is termed a sport but I don't look at it as sport.

"I stuck at it for five years and reached green belt in that time. I then had to relocate due to my work as a pastor but I kept fit playing football and doing weight-training among other things.
"For me it is a discipline and an excellent form of self-defence.
"I hope that through my training I would be able to help anybody, be it my family or whoever, if they were in difficulty."

Ernest returned to his native Ballymena in 2000 and immediately started back training with Sensei Dan Redmond, head of the Chujo Karate Association. Five years later - at the age of 67 - he was awarded his black belt and two years later progressed to second dan. The arduous hour-and-a-half grading was supervised by Iain Abernethy, one of karate's most respected instructors throughout the whole of the UK.

Ernest is now focusing on attaining his third dan in the art and hopes to take it next year. Coleraine man Robert started training from scratch in 2001 after seeing an interview on television with former Conservative leader William Hague. "I was watching Michael Parkinson interviewing him and he revealed he was a purple belt in judo," said Robert. "I thought, if he can do that, why can't I?" Robert, a retired BT engineer and keen photographer, is currently training for his black belt grading which will be held in the Spring.

He hopes that before long grand-kids Caitlin (9) and Cassidy (4) will be lining-up alongside him in the dojo. Sensei Redmond said both men were an asset to the club. "They are two fantastic men and excellent martial artists," he added. "They're great role-models to the younger members." Asked if you were ever too old to start karate, Ernest's answer was emphatic: "No, that's nonsense.

"I love it, love training. You are never too old, and I'm proof of that."