BoxRec

jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 09:00

mercman wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:50

jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:43

One of my best mates parents split up when he was 10, and his mum relocated him from Leafy Putney, where they'd lived in a nice house and he went to a good school, to Doncaster, where they moved into a council estate and he went to a local comprehensive.

He talks about those days with some trepidation, and he basically said it was like prison, you had to fight the minute someone started on you, otherwise you'd get battered by all and sundry.

He said friday nights was like a cross between the wild west and the film running man, and that it was pretty much standard that you'd end the night with a punch up outside a kebab shop or other such place.

Small town Britain's always been rough as arseholes.

People talk about London being dangerous, but it really isn't, it's soft as shite down here, unless you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or you're involved with the wrong people, the chances of you being mugged, stabbed or beat up are really incredibly low.

Yeah, agree. Doncaster is a rough hole and you've got far more chance of getting attacked in somewhere like that than in much of London. Difference is, it's usually a kicking, knives and guns especially are rare. Obviously, London is different in that respect.

I have to say, the only area of London, in which I was genuinely afraid for myself, was King's Cross, back before it was all done up - that are was a cesspool of the dregs of humanity, pickpockets, muggers, junkies, prostitues and pimps, it was genuinely worrying if you walked through there late at night as the WQ (Wrong 'un Quotient) was higher than anywhere else in London. The pimps seemed to be the worst, as they were generally very aggressive if you came anywhere near them, and they constantly prowled the streets looking for any perceived threats to their livelihood.

I used to travel around other supposed black spots for crime, Harlseden, Neasden, Peckham , Clapton, Streatham , etc and never really felt likely anything was going to happen to me, unless I chose to get involved or hung around somewhere where something was happening too long.

East Greenwich, Plumstead, Woolwich used to have a bit of a vibe too, really run down with a lot of street action.

mickey1975 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 09:43

jamesmcdonnell wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 09:00

mercman wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:50

Yeah, agree. Doncaster is a rough hole and you've got far more chance of getting attacked in somewhere like that than in much of London. Difference is, it's usually a kicking, knives and guns especially are rare. Obviously, London is different in that respect.

I have to say, the only area of London, in which I was genuinely afraid for myself, was King's Cross, back before it was all done up - that are was a cesspool of the dregs of humanity, pickpockets, muggers, junkies, prostitues and pimps, it was genuinely worrying if you walked through there late at night as the WQ (Wrong 'un Quotient) was higher than anywhere else in London. The pimps seemed to be the worst, as they were generally very aggressive if you came anywhere near them, and they constantly prowled the streets looking for any perceived threats to their livelihood.

I used to travel around other supposed black spots for crime, Harlseden, Neasden, Peckham , Clapton, Streatham , etc and never really felt likely anything was going to happen to me, unless I chose to get involved or hung around somewhere where something was happening too long.

East Greenwich, Plumstead, Woolwich used to have a bit of a vibe too, really run down with a lot of street action.

The Flying Scotsman was my favourite boozer.
One of our lads told a beggar on crutches to go f himself, the guy squared up on perfect legs and hit him with a crutch. Kings x was no joke in the 90's. I was there in August, it's lovely.

662081 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 05:19 Wakefield seemed to produce more than its fair share of hardmen/deviants/nutters (before Sykes we had Ernie Field who I once saw fighting a lampost) I think a number of factors caused this:

1. It was surrounded by colleries and a large percentage of the male work force were employed by them.

2. It was a 'rugby town' due to the then famous Wakefield Trinity.

3. It used to have more pubs per square mile than any town/city in the UK.

All in all it was a very 'macho' culture in the city, getting into a scrap at the weekend if you went out was almost inevitable. Always slightly behind the times as well, 77 - 80 when Punk/New Wave swept the UK, the youth of Wakey were still wearing Oxford Bags, Star Jumpers and listening to Slade/Sweet etc, and the three night clubs Dolly Grey's, Tiffany's and the surreal Heppy's who only catered for the Oxford Bag brigade.

John Keenan a well known music promoter in Leeds started putting on gigs at the Unity Hall, a regular feature of the first few gigs was the audience coming out only to be met by a huge gang of pissed up Wakey denizens wanting to bash 'the punks' they got bored of this after a while but the gigs were often ruined by the fearsome Goddard brothers, two local thugs who the Unity Hall drafted in as bouncers who cleared had nothing but contempt for the punters.

Horrible place altogether and I was more than happy to leave and move to Leeds when I went to college.

mercman wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:21
Those old-school technical colleges tended to be dominated by staff and students from local industry and commerce and did more to reproduce and perpetuate the existing culture than challenge it.

Having a university or polytechnic attracted more 'outsiders' with other norms and values, and were often quite different to the locals. So, it tended to add a different dimension in terms of youth culture and having a student scene, etc.

mercman wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:23

662081 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:12 @mercman

Do ever have the pleasure of attending the boxing shows at Painthorpe Country Club in Crigglestone?

No, mate. Never been there. Attended shows in South Elmsall and South Kirkby but never Crigglestone.

mercman wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:23

662081 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:12 @mercman

Do ever have the pleasure of attending the boxing shows at Painthorpe Country Club in Crigglestone?

No, mate. Never been there. Attended shows in South Elmsall and South Kirkby but never Crigglestone.

Fray Bentos wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 08:45 West Yorkshire and all those amateur teams and their mad relatives and friends who all turn out with their pitbulls, alsatians and rottweilers - had a mate who ran clear to score a try and some pudendum on the sidelines set their rottweiler onto him and it went flying for him and he just threw the ball in the air and ran right off the pitch!

mickey1975 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 10:15 I was there a few months ago. In a lovely restaurant called The German Gymnasium.

mercman wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 10:50
Oh, that's tremendous, a platter of pork! What was winning meat all about? It used to be a thing back in the day, didn't it. Does it still happen now? Surely not. Seems mad looking back

The Young One wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 10:24 I believe that Ernie Fields' brother Richard although deaf and dumb was a loose cannon, more so than Ernie.

662081 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 11:07

It was on a big foil plate, there was chops, steaks, gammon, sausages, halved tomatoes, a couple of pineapple rings and a few sprigs of parsley,

Counter-puncher wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 11:37

662081 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 11:07

It was on a big foil plate, there was chops, steaks, gammon, sausages, halved tomatoes, a couple of pineapple rings and a few sprigs of parsley,

mickey1975 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 12:01 The meat is still a raffle prize in working mans clubs. "A navvies breakfast". Every week.

mercman wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 12:26
Prizes sponsored by a West Yorkshire pork baron - we're getting into Phoenix Nights territory here.

662081 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 12:35 @Mickey1975

Look at this one.



Don't like to be rude, but he's a bit creepy if you ask me.

JamesPhilips wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 14:08
I think I met him in the blue oyster bar?

orbtastic wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 15:37 I think it’s the slightly camp east Yorks accent.

At least he’s not talking about mystery meat.

662081 wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 04:43

coneye wrote: ↑15 Feb 2022, 00:33 So after 17.5 years and 404 posts whats the end result , i would say its

he was a hard man , who could and did beat the shite out of most men with the exception of other profesional fighters

He was also a bully a thug and according to rumors a rapist with homosexual tendencies , and if rumors are true a penchent for raping men whist in prison

He also liked young women and was known to bully his wife and kids ,

His parents alongside his wife and children were scared to death of him

He was also a liar , a braggart and a total pisshead .

He then went on to become a homless , pisshead who took to sleeping on the streets ,,

He ruined himself so much physicly the local kids used to piss on him when he was in his drunken stupors ,

Overall i say he ended up getting his just deserts , just unfortunate one of his victims did'nt come across him whilst he was in a drunken stupor and extract there revenge by shoving a red hot poker up his arse

I say you deserve what you give , and Karmas a bitch

Paul Sykes was a useless peice of shite

Can't argue with any of that mate, I wince with embarrassment now at my adulation/involvement with him years ago, in my defence I was only 16 the first time I saw him fight, (as a young boxing fan it was very exciting that 'Wakey' had its very own heavyweight 'contender') but as I got older I became more aware of his obnoxious and deviant behaviour (he punched me on the arm once and shaped up to me, just because I'd had a decent run as an amateur at the old White Rose club)

An utterly vile b*stard all told, and it pisses me off no end that Jamie Boyle the cartoon voiced, coke sniffing clown is stealing a living perpetuating the Sykes myth with his atrocious, badly written books.