The Boxing Biographies Newsletter
Volume 4- No 4 18th Feb, 2009
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Digger Stanley
The Times 22 October 1912
BOXING.
THE BANTAM-WEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP.
The feature of the programme at the National Sporting Club last night was the 20-round contest for £400, the Bantam-Weight Championship of Great Britain, and the Lonsdale Championship Challenge Belt between Digger Stanley, of London, the holder of the Lonsdale Belt, and Alec Lafferty, Bantam-Weight Champion of Scotland.
The result was a victory on points for Stanley, who thus became the owner of his belt.
The Two Men
Much interest was felt in the meeting of these clever boxers. Stanley, though not yet 30 years old, is a veteran of the ring ; next to the incomparable Driscoll he ranks as the most finished of English boxers, and even the American critics admit that he is a master of ring-craft. He is not a very hard hitter,'but the " digs," which he employs to break down an opponent's resistance and have given him his by-name, are much more severe than a casual observer would think. Moreover, he is wonderfully clever in getting out of difficulties, has a fine defence, and possesses the armour of trained abdominal muscles which renders a pugilist impervious to body blows. His last Lonsdale belt contest with Ledoux, the fast and hard-hitting French champion proved that he had lost none of his cleverness and little, if any, of his pace. He has not Driscoll's brilliance of execution and absolute accuracy of judging distance and timing his man, but for all that he will always be remembered as an artist in his unostentatious way.
Lafferty had not previously appeared at the heady quarters of professional boxing and his form was unknown to most London followers of the game. But, though nearly ten years younger than his formidable antagonist, he has a long string of victories, both in Great Britain and in America, to his credit, and his possession of a punch was guaranteed by the frequency with which the letters K.O. appear in his record. With a reputation for speed and some cleverness he was certain, it was thought, to give the long-experienced and cautious belt; holder a good fight, and not a few of the spectators believed that he might win with a little luck.
THE FIGHT.
At the start they were laying 6 to 4 on Stanley, who was extremely cautions during the first four rounds. The first half of the contest was virtually a long clinching match, in which the veteran allowed his opponent to do all the hard work of disentanglement. The manoeuvring for the inside position, in which Stanley was almost always successful, was the only interesting. feature of the proceedings. There was not much in it on points ; what there was seemed to be Stanley's, thanks to his straight left. From the 11th round on Lafferty tried to rush the holder of the belt, but was always evaded, generally receiving a " dig " or two before the wrestling began. Twice Stanley delivered the forbidden kidney-blow, on each occasion looking apologetically at the referee.
As the contest went on the Scotsman's deficiencies as a boxer became obvious ; he made very little use of his right, signalled at times, and was very mechanical in his methods of attack. In the 15th round Stanley began to attack vigorously, and long before the end it was clear that nothing but a knock-out could prevent him from winning. He was much too wary to give his opponent a chance, and in the end had won by a great number of points.
Lafferty, who was very badly seconded, has much to learn. But he should become a first-rate man if ho finds a good teacher who will persuade him to stand correctly.
The Times 21 April 1914
DIGGER STANLEY v. CURLEY WALKER.
STANLEY DISQUALIFIED.
Curley Walker (Bermondsey) beat Digger Stanley (Fulham) for £500 and the Bantam-Weight championship :and Lonsdale Belt, Stanley being disqualified for holding in the 13th round.
Stanley fully deserved to lose the fight, for his Methods were open to question. all. through ; he was continually cautioned for holding, and a punch which was, distinctly low dropped Walker for a count of four in the second round. In the sixth round Stanley made more use of his elbow than is approved of by the authorities, and in the last few rounds he was fortunate, or, rather, clever in choosing his moments for holding when the referee could not see him.
Walker’s victory was very popular, for his boxing was much cleaner, and he used his left with good effect, particularly in the fifth and sixth rounds. Stanley changed his tactics in the ninth round, swinging right and left to the body continually .Walker weakened visibly, but had picked up again and was when his opponent was disqualified.
The chief interest in all Digger Stanley's contests now is to see how long; he continues to hold his own against opponents who are always . younger and generally not much more than half his age. Although there was only a difference of half a pound when the men Weighed in yesterday afternoon, they presented a great contrast when they finally got to work after the tedious preliminary business of bandaging which has become so fashionable nowadays. Stanley for all his 38 years .looked what he is — the seasoned fighter versed in every trick of the ring. While Walker seemed a mere boy beside him —a boy nevertheless with a punch .quite worthy of respect, as Stanley soon found Walker's advantage in age was most apparent in the quickness with which he recovered from the onslaught of his opponent. Had the contest gone the full length it is .probable that Walker's great recuperative powers would have gained him the victory.
'THE TIMES, SATURDAY 29 July 1911
BOXING.
ENGLISH CHAMPIONS.
Even in the last days of the old Prize Ring the Englishman was still unquestionably superior to all his rivals in the art of self-defence with nature's weapons only, success in which depended in that age of cold common sense almost as much on a man's wrestling ability as on his skill in fisticuffs. It is just possible that England's supremacy in the finest of personal pastimes might have lasted even to the present moment if wrestling had not been ruled out—to reappear in the form of clinching— under the new and mitigated code which was universally accepted -when a revival of interest in prize-fighting took place. Under the good old rules we might still possess the world's heavy-weight championship ; cross-buttocking permitted and the gloves laid by, we would cheerfully back Gunner Moir (who has been Hackenschmidt's wrestling partner) to beat even the artful and artistic Johnson, to say nothing of the " white man's hopes" that are appearing so plenteously on the other side of the Atlantic.
As things are, however, boxing is clearly a cosmopolitan profession and England to-day can hardly even claim to be prima inter pares in the production of first-rate professors of the science and art thereof. First of all the Irish-American threw his queer hat (with a dirty clay-pipe stuck in. the hat-band) . into the ring and so effectually demonstrated - his right to challenge the plain Englishman's supremacy that a Celtic name seemed for a decade and more the most necessary item in the ; modern boxer's equipment. Then the negro arrived, and so manfully has he played his part that to-day there are four copper coloured heavy-weights --Johnson, Jeannette, MacVea, and Sam Langford—each of whom is more than a match for the best white boxer living.
More recently, the American citizen of , European ancestry has proved himself a formidable glove-fighter. Among German-American boxers the most prominent are Attell, Wolgast, Harry Lewis, and Papke, each of whom claims the world's championship in his division. As yet the Oriental, who has shown himself such a strong and skilful wrestler, has not dropped his turban into the arena. But he may do so at any moment. And already almost every European country is producing competent pugilists ; France, for example, possesses in Moreau and Carpentier two absolutely first-rate boxers, and one hears of good men coming on in the Scandinavian countries and in Ger many, while several Italians have done well in the American ring. England taught America the game and America is teaching the rest of the world. It is a notable fact that Paris, where there is a real enthusiasm for boxing, will have nothing to do with English teachers of the art. There, and elsewhere on the Continent, they are thought to be the advocates of antiquated methods.
CONCERNING AMATEURS.
As far as amateur boxers are concerned, the supremacy of England is still unchallenged. Our amateurs are better than those of America or any other country, and there are a great many more of them. The easy victories recently gained by a team of English amateurs, when they met the champions of the United States and of France at New York and Paris, proved this, if proof were necessary. The team in question was not fully representative - it was entirely made up of men who distinguished themselves in the A. B. A. Championships, and it must be remembered that many of our very best amateurs hold aloof from the annual competitions at the Alexandra Palace because of late years the " shamateur " or professional in the making has been far too prominent there. There can be no doubt that these and other amateur competitions provide an excellent training for the boxer who intends to make the game his profession. In the customary three-round contests he learns to box at the greatest pace of which he is naturally capable, and the edge of his ability not taken off by a series of lengthier affairs when he is a growing lad. If all our professional champions had the amateur's pace and fire, as well as the experienced prize fighter's knowledge of defensive tactics and of the tricks of the trade, they would make a better show against the American experts.
To return to the original discussion, the arrival of the cosmopolitan prize-fighter has affected the situation in several ways. It is a true that the methods of the cosmopolitan boxer are often unsportsmanlike to a degree. With far too many of the American experts it is an axiom of ringcraft that nothing is illegal unless the law (in a " biled shirt," as they say) has cognizance thereof - they look on butting, the use of the elbows, hitting with the heel of the glove or with a bony wrist, throttling an opponent in clinches, etc., as perfectly justifiable provided the offence escapes the eye of the referee. Boxing is not, and never has been, a gentleman's diversion in America ; the professional boxer there, whose only patron is the crowd, has never associated with the leaders of Society (as the heroes of the old Prize Ring, , those glorified clodhoppers, did in England), be and has not been taught the elements of sportsmanship.
The wonder is that he is so often a sportsmanlike antagonist, a clean fighter, and a scorner of mean advantages like McFarland or Stanley Ketchel in his day, or Jeffries in his prime, or almost all the first-rate negro pugi lists. It is not the first-rate but the second-rate boxer who employs foul tactics ; and the writer, who has seen many championship con tests on both sides of the Atlantic in the last 20 years, cannot recall a single instance in which the issue was determined by the taking of unfair advantages.
As often as not the American fighter of complex ancestry is a species of freak, physically speaking, not so obviously, perhaps, as the living skeleton or the fat lady, but he belongs to the category of dime museum types. Papke and Wolgast have the round cast-iron German head which will stand any amount of hammering ; furthermore, they have the low, nervous organization of the extreme phlegmatic type, and can stand pain as well as a Red Indian, or even better. Both have a natural punch of amazing severity, and win their fights by addressing it to the place where it does the it most damage—in the case of an English a opponent to the stomach, which, perhaps be cause England has always been a land of good living, seems to be the weak point in the national physique. " Battling" Nelson, another boxer who was impervious to ordinary punishment, was a fish-like personage ; his heart beat more slowly than that of the average man, and even at the end of the hottest round his skin was icy-cold.
All the negro fighters are, of course, abnormal in. physique as compared with the average European ; their skulls are unusually thick, their chins are not pointed, and their nervous systems are not easily shocked. The more highly-organized Englishman is at a disadvantage when he meets these fighting machines of un-English flesh and blood in. the ring.
The more reason why he should not allow traditional ideas to prevent him from adapting his style to the solution of new and tough problems such as were unknown before the advent of the cosmopolitan glove-fighter and are still much misunderstood.
THE SHORTENED WEAPON.
As long as it is a question of out-fighting the traditional English style is good enough. The straight left is still the best device for keeping an opponent outside ; when an opening presents itself the direct hit reaches its mark more quickly, though with less force, than the vertical or horizontal haymaker " or swing, in which the fist is really bowled at the other man's head. But the cosmopolitan boxer with his cast-iron head, whose chin has been left behind 'in his family bush, cannot be kept out by hitting or breaking ground ; and, unless his English opponent is conversant with the modern science.of in-fighting, he will sooner or later be broken up and beaten by a series of body blows. In actual warfare the nation with the shorter weapon has almost always prevailed ; the short, thrusting sword of the Roman legionary, for example, was more than a match for the Macedonian pike or the Celtic claymore.
Even so in these latter days the boxer whose strategy it is to get inside and pound away at close quarters has the advantage, and deserves to have it. It is the half-arm hit, the severity of which can be much increased by wrist-play, that counts for most in the modern game ; and, what is more, that which lands on some useful part of the body is more damaging in the long rim than the abbreviated punch to the head.The English professional, whose chief idea is to work for the head at a respectful distance will be 'Knocked out—as Sullivan was by Papke and Moran by Wolgast — whenever he meets the cosmopolitan expert who dispenses with mere prettinesses.
Sooner or later he will have to take the count ; sooner rather than later if he has not the capacity of enduring a pounding in the stomach — a form of endurance that may be acquired by practice and by experience and by special exercises for strengthening the middle-storey muscles. The fact that the new style is uncouth and un- familiar to English eyes, long accustomed to the open and graceful methods of the academics, must not mislead us into believing that it is un- scientific or necessarily unfair.
Otherwise we fall into the foolishness of, say, the academic critics of Bertrand's system of fencing. Our champions are apt to forget that fighting is far and away the best preparation for fighting. They keep their form under a glass case, whereas the American champions are always taking part in six or ten round no-decision affairs, which add to their experience (which is the root of all ringcraft ) and keep the keen edge on their impressionistic artistry. In most parts of the United States it is illegal to name the winners of such contests — the moralists, who have shut the referee's mouth, hoped by so doing to lessen the severity of such affairs, but the very reverse has happened — and the only way in which a boxer can score a palpable win in defiance of the police regulations is by knocking out his opponent. Accordingly the no-decision meetings are full of hard, fast fighting, and those who engage in them learn this great lesson —never to lose the opportunity of a decisive advantage.
THE PRESENT POSITION
At the present moment we have half-a dozen champions of England, each of them the holder of the Lonsdale Belt in his division, who form as good a team as we have ever possessed in the last 20 years. They are Digger Stanley (bantam class). Jem Driscoll (feather weights), Matt Wells (light weights), Young Joseph (welter -weights), Jim Sullivan (middle weights), and Bombardier Wells (heavy weights). Of these six Driscoll is in a class by himself ; he prefers out-fighting, but is equally good at inside work, and it is impossible to put a finger on any weakness in his style, unless the possession of a temperament not absolutely imperturbable be accounted as such. Like Gans, called the " Old Master " in his day, he is a typo of the natural genius which practice has made perfect. Young Joseph is the weakest of the six ; he is a pretty boxer and a gentlemanly fighter, but is not very robust, and lacks the indispensable punch. Digger Stanley, who is an adept at inside work, is well worth his place in the team, though hardly as good as Bowker was in his prime. Matt Wells is not only a very fast and scientific boxer, hut also a sturdy fighter with a punch, and he has little or nothing to learn about in-fighting. He is to meet Wolgast in September, but will have some difficulty in making the weight ; one hopes for the best, while fearing the worst. It is in the middle-weight and heavy-weight divisions that cosmopolitan America's superiority is unquestionable. With more experience Sullivan could make a brave show against the best American middle-weights (there are better men coming on than Papke), but he is too high-strung and too susceptible to body-blows to win a world's championship.
As for Bombardier Wells, he is as fast and as clever at out-fighting as any heavy-weight living, and he has the power of wrist-play which adds sting to the straightforward English punch. But though his body satisfies Euclid's definition of a line, he may be said to wear his stomach on his sleeve in a manner of speaking, and it is very doubtful whether the modern science of physical culture, though it can work wonders, will perform for him the miracle of curing this ostentatious weakness- But, while he lasts, he will be able to give the best of the iron-jawed negroes and cosmopolitan fighting-machines a lively quarter of an hour, and when he comes to his full strength he will always have a chance of upsetting the odds. His amazing pace and piston-like left, -with its effortless punch, must now and again put the most formidable antagonist off his game (the outpaced fighter often goes to pieces for a time), and cause him to leave the opening for a decisive stroke—and we already know that Wells is too quick-witted to miss an opportunity. But it is a thousand pities that he has been matched against Johnson during his novitiate.
Champion of England though he be, Wells is merely a magnificent novice, a youth of 22 whose muscular system is unfinished, necessarily deficient in constitutional strength and stamina, and a tiro at the inside-work of which the negro, a fighter born and made, is among the greatest of living masters—as uncannily clever, indeed, as Gans or any other of the little men of his race. It will be 20 to 1 on Johnson ; it would be infinity to nothing but for the fact that the negro may not think it necessary to train seriously. If he goes into the ring with the fat which he has collected since the Reno affair, and Wells can keep out of danger for ten rounds (which would be a great achievement, all things considered), then the utterly unexpected might happen.
Stan Rowan
Stan began boxing with the Grafton Services Club & Caryl Gardens ABC. As an amateur he won Lancashire & Cheshire Junior Titles at two weights before winning the senior Flyweight Title at the age of seventeen. After turning professional in 1942 his first opponent was Eddie Douglas, whom he beat at the Liverpool Stadium in four rounds, 28 August 1942. Overall Stan had nine fights that year, winning seven and drawing two. He won another five bouts in 1943 before joining the Royal Air Force.
Before taking up his post in the RAF there was time for one more contest against Frank Kid Bonser of Nottingham at the Tower Circus, Blackpool, on 20 January 1946. Whether his mind was distracted by his call-up to the RAF we will never know, but Stan was knocked-out for the only time in his career in the eighth round.
Stan then left for wartime service in Rhodesia thus putting his career on hold for a couple of years. However, he got back to business in 1946 losing only one of six bouts beating Jacky Hughes, Mickey Jones, Tommy Madine, Norman Lewis and Mickey Colbert. Stan was now being talked about as a possible challenger for the British Title. The then champion Johnny King, who had held the title since 1932, was coming to the end of his career when he defended and lost his titles to Jackie Paterson at Belle Vue, Manchester on 10 February 1947 on a seventh round stoppage.
It seemed that the Scotsman’s first defence would be against either, Rowan, Doran, O’Sullivan or Peter Kane, the former World Flyweight Champion, who was retuning to the ring after a three-year absence. Kane came back in 1947 and following a few good wins he got a shot at the European Bantamweight Title held by Theo Medina. Kane subsequently beat Medina, on 19 September 1947, on points over fifteen rounds at Manchester.
Meanwhile Stan was doing his chances of a title fight no harm. He knocked-out Joe Curran in the tenth round at the Liverpool Stadium, on 14 August 1947 in a North Central Bantamweight Eliminator. Just four weeks later, 8 September 1947, he flattened Paterson, in a non-title fight, in two rounds at the Harringay Arena. The following year he then met and beat Bunty Doran in an official eliminator at the Liverpool Stadium, on 18 March 1948, coming off the canvas to win on points. Another victory, just two months later, 31 May 1948, against former amateur boxing champion Danny O’Sullivan, now meant that Rowan would meet Peter Kane in a final eliminator for the right to take on Paterson for the British title.
Before taking on Kane Stan gave himself a boost by beating Theo Medina, at the Olympia on 6 July 1948, but then had a setback losing to another Frenchman Georges Mousse on a badly cut eye in the eight round at the Liverpool Stadium on 9 September 1948.
Kane and Rowan eventually met in a final eliminator at Belle Vue on 19 November 1948, and despite putting up a great performance in what turned out to be his last fight, Kane was clearly out-pointed over twelve rounds. The way was now clear for Rowan to take on Paterson for the British and Commonwealth (British Empire) Titles.
Rowan’s fight with Paterson attracted so much interest on Merseyside that Johnny Best secured a home draw for it with a bid of £2000. The bout took place on 24 March, before a crowd of 17,000 at Anfield, which incidentally was the last time boxing took place at Liverpool’s FC Anfield ground. Rowan boxed superbly throughout the contest, so good was Rowan’s display that Paterson only had one good round the sixth. In the seventh Rowan continued where had left off in the fifth eventually dropping Paterson for a count of nine in the eleventh, before going on to gain a convincing points win. Rowan became Liverpool’s first Bantamweight Champion.
Because of weight difficulties Stan was unable to cash in on his Titles. After losing his Empire Title to Vic Toweel in South Africa, on 12 November 1949, he moved up to featherweight and after two bouts he quit the ring for two years. He made his comeback in 1952 but, due to a series of bad cuts and problems in making the featherweight limit, he only had a further six contests. His last contest was against Peter Keenan on 18 March 1953 at the Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, which he lost over ten rounds. Stan had, in fact, his hand raised as the winner but the referee realised he was standing in Keenan’s corner and rectified his decision.