roy wrote:When I was growing up Graham Houston used to be the boxing correspondent for my local paper- the South London Press. In those days there used to be good quality amateur shows at Manor Place Baths most Monday evenings featuring the likes of Mark Rowe, Johnny Clark, Dave Proud, Terry Waller,Terry and Peter Henderson, Eamonn and Neville Cole, Chris Finnegan,etc. I'm sure Graham remembers them well and only 10/- (50p) to get in!
The
South London Press! That takes me back a bit! I was on the subs' desk there and covered the boxing for what the editor described as the "princely sum" of two guineas per article. (I was also the film critic under the pseudonym of "Clyde Graham").
We had some excellent fighters in south London in my time at the
SLP. Mark Rowe lives in Kent but we claimed him as south London because of his long connection with Fitzroy Lodge, the famous south London club. We had Johnny Clark, yes, also Jimmy Revie from Brixton, the Irish McCormack brothers, Young John (one of the nicest men I ever knew) and Pat, the Battersea featherweight Johnny Mantle, Bermondsey featherweight Phil Lundgren (beautiful stand-up boxer), Tooting welter Ivan Whiter (good right-hand puncher, knocked out fancied banger Peter Cragg in a three-round shootout). There was Battersea's Eric Blake, from the Caius club, who went to the Olympics but never quite made it as a pro middleweight. The light-heavy Johnny Hendrickson. Lightweight crowd-pleaser Lex Hunter... Al White ... some had moved outside the area but we claimed them from their amateur-club connections, and all retained their South London billing -- Mark Rowe was billed from Camberwell
The amateur boxers you mention, I remember so well. I loved going to the South-East London Division championships at Eltham Baths. In one year we had Terry Henderson, Tony Petch and Dave Proud all entered in the welterweight division. Well remember Eamon Cole (Lodge) outboxing Pat McCormack (Lynn) in a SE Divs final at light-welter: Pat was fancied ("too strong") but Cole's southpaw style was all wrong for McCormack.
Happy days? You bet they were.