Tribute to Turpin

[Broomhall]

Picked this up on yahoo

https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/on- ... 34551.html

[palooka]

Randy had a pretty good brother as well - Dick Turpin who was mentioned in this weeks Boxing News.

[Broomhall]

The story also mentioned him, and I think there where a couple of other pro boxing brothers. Randys brother Dick broke the colour bar in England (hard to imagine now) to become the first black fighter to hold a Bitish title.

[doug.ie]

and jackie...who trained me for the year i had a go at amateur boxing. (85 or thereabouts)

jackie fought on the undercard of robinson v randy II at the polo grounds, new york.....and liebling wrote about it, comparing jackie to jack kid berg no less !!

something else....when randy fought bobo olsen for the middleweight title...he was in bother with a woman and mind wasnt on the job of training...and the only sparring he did in preparation was 30 rounds of sparring with...his brother jackie... a featherweight who never got above english central area level. !!

[Counter-puncher]

Hey Doug.ie where was it that you trained with Jackie?

[doug.ie]

Hey Doug.ie where was it that you trained with Jackie?

top of sydenham...leamington spa....think the club moved in later years. (was beside asda supermarket when i went)

[Counter-puncher]

Hey Doug.ie where was it that you trained with Jackie?

top of sydenham...leamington spa....think the club moved in later years. (was beside asda supermarket when i went)

right, i think it had moved by the time I went there, i don't think it was as far out as Sydenham, IIRC it was like a 1950s style youth club near the river/nearer to the centre?

[doug.ie]

funny how randys statue is in warwick and not leamington

[Bodyshot3]

funny how randys statue is in warwick and not leamington

I found that extremely strange as well, especially as Randy was famously known as the 'Leamington Licker.'

I lived in Leamington for a year as a student and I cannot recall anything to mark the achievements of Randy or Dick Turpin. Considering what both lads achieved, especially Randy...coming from a conservative Spa town in middle England and with race being a major issue back in those days...it still seems an awful shame.

Thankfully, there is a blue plaque in Leamington marking the place where Randy was born and looking back through local history it seems that Randy's defining moment of glory did not go unnoticed...he was granted a big civic reception at the time.

Randy's life story does need revisting in my opinion.....he was the undisputed middleweight champion of the world, a boy from the provinces and the UK's first black sporting hero of the modern era. That's one hell of a legacy.

[palooka]

Oddly enough I was over in Llandudno earlier this week and I paid a visit to this place while I was there:

http://www.thesummitcomplex.co.uk/bar.php

Been a dozen times before but it's always worth a look.

That looks a good place, did you have your photo taken with the statue?

[palooka]

Did you have your photo taken with the statue?

No

There's always next time

[doug.ie]

I walked up to it one january...bastard of a walk up that orme...and it was closed !!