Dave Charnley As An Amateur (1950-1954)

[williefromrichmond]

DAVE CHARNLEY

Born October 10, 1935

Began boxing 1946 with Dartford and District Amateur Club

Moved to the Fitzroy Lodge Amateur Boxing Club in London about 1952 when his local club disbanded

Southpaw stance

5’ 6” 126 as an amateur

Amateur record
Two sources: Boxing News 8-27-54, page 14, which covers the period from November 11, 1952 until August 5, 1954, when he decided to turn pro and basically includes his senior contests (37-5, with 14 KO’s); Boxing News 10-4-56, page 4, which says “in all he engaged in well over 70 amateur contests, of which he lost only eight.”

* Results of this bout confirmed in “Boxing News” issues

1952

*Jan. - Southern Counties Class B
(age 16-17) 9 stone champion;
Hove.
*Mch. 5 - M. D. De Courey Whewell W pts
*Mch. 5 - L. Wilson W pts
A.B.A. Youth Class B (age 16-17) 9 stone champion; Albert Hall.
Nov. 11 - H. Baghuar, Mile End W pts
Dec. 11 - J. Culwick, “Times” Gym W pts
Dec. 12 - Alf Drew, Chiswick L pts
*Dec. 14 - W. Norman, Eltham W pts
“Charnley was a clear points winner over Norman. The outstanding feature of the contest was the southpaw Charnley’s hard punches which dropped Norman for three counts” (Boxing News 12-31-52:16).

1953

Jan. 7 - Alf Drew, Hackney W pts
Jan. 22 - M. O’Connor W 3
Jan. 22 - Len Mills W pts
Jan. 22 - T. Haddon W pts
9 stone novices competition champion; Manor Place.
Feb. 2 - R. Hope, Dartford W 2
Feb. 19 - W. Hurley, Woolwich W pts
Feb. 26 - Alan Stephens, Walworth W pts
Mch. 9 - C. Chatham W 1
*Mch. 9 - W. Norman W 2
Boxing News 3-18-53:15.
*Mch. 10 - Pat Dempster W disq 3
S. E. London Division featherweight champion; Eltham. Boxing News 3-18-53:15.
*Mch. 25 - Alf Drew W pts
Boxing News 4-1-53:15.
*Mch. 25 - Percy Lewis L pts
London featherweight finalist; Empress Hall. “Charnley won the applause of the crowd and the admiration of Lewis for the manner in which he took some of Lewis’ best punches and yet continually came back and to hold his own in some fiery spells of two-handed punching. Charnley’s brisk opening attack appeared to fade when Lewis got home two good right hooks to the body but for half of the second round Charnley came back to force Lewis on the retreat with his short-range hooking. Only a man with Lewis’ experience could have kept cool under such an attack and pick his counter-punches which although solid and well placed never checked the speed and aggression of his youthful rival. Came the last round and Charnley retained his aggression but his attack could never quite match the accuracy of Lewis who rightly took the points victory” (Boxing News 4-1-53:15).
*Apr. 1 - Alan Stephens, Walworth W pts
Boxing News 4-15-53:15.
Apr. 20 - Don Steff, Mile End W pts
May 23 - R. Ghent, Shepherds Bush W pts
*June 4 - Pat Duffell W pts
London A.B.A. vs. Royal Air Force; Clapham Common. Boxing News 6-10-53:15).
*June 12 - Jan van der Zee W pts
London A.B.A. vs. Amsterdam; Amsterdam. “Charnley caused a big upset by outpointing the Dutch featherweight champion” (Boxing News 6-17-53:15).
*Sept. 26 - Hans Peter Mehling W pts
Britain A.B.A. vs. West Germany; Frankfurt. Boxing News 10-7-53:16).
*Sept. 29 - M. Schnabel, Fulda W pts
Britain A.B.A. vs. Hessia; Fulda, West Germany. Boxing News 10-7-53:16.
*Oct. 10 - Tommy Butler W disq 2
London Select vs. Ireland; Albert Hall. “Charnley was having a rough passage against Butler in the second round. Butler had caught Charnley with a powerful body punch and made him wince in pain. Butler repeatedly ducked below Charnley’s waistline, however, and was disqualified” (Boxing News 10-21-53:16).
*Oct. 28 - Cherif Hamia L pts
Great Britain vs. France; Wembley. “For two rounds Hamia pounded away at Charnley, but took one or two good rights from the tough Charnley. In the third, however, Charnley cut loose and had Hamia in real trouble. Hamia’s head repeatedly went back from the stabbing lefts. The judges decided in favour of Hamia to a storm of booing, but the verdict seemed correct. Charnley was very disappointed and could hardly believe the decision” (Boxing News 11-4-53:16).
*Nov. 3 - Roger Baldwin, Mile End W 2
“After being knocked to the canvas for nine, Charnley rose to his feet and set about his game opponent. Charnley’s ‘how dare you put me down’ tactics paid off and Baldwin had to take two counts before the referee stopped the contest” (Boxing News 11-11-53:16).
Nov. 11 - Tommy Nicholls, Walworth L pts
*Dec. 12 - Bobby Neill W pts
London Select vs. Scotland Select; York Hall, Bethnal Green. “The best London victory was scored by Charnley. After being put down for a count of eight early in the first round, Charnley settled down and well outboxed Neill. Neill had only had eight senior contests. Even so he was always a danger to Charnley, who opened the contest with an over- eager onslaught which led to his early setback. At the end of the contest there was no doubt who had won and both boys were given a great cheer” (Boxing News 12-16-53:15).
*Dec. 16 - Jim Leach, Bermondsey W 2
“Leach protested after the referee stopped his contest in favour of Charnley. He need not have done so as he was well beaten. Charnley, who had been dictating the first, cut loose in the second and had Leach in a corner pounding him with at least five right-handers. Leach was swaying on the ropes with his hands down and as he crumpled up and fell to the canvas, the referee stopped the contest” (Boxing News 12-23-53:16).

1954

Jan. 1 - R. Jones, Dartford W 3
Jan. 26 - J. Ball, Glasgow W pts
*Feb. 5 - Horst Stutz W 3
London vs. Berliner Box Verband; West Berlin (Boxing News 2-12-54:15).
Feb. 22 - Freddy Woodman, Walworth W pts
Mch. 6 - R. Warnes W 2
*Mch. 8 - Len Mills W 3
London S.E. Division featherweight champion; Eltham. “Employing a stream of effective right-handers, Mills easily coped with the southpaw stance of Charnley in the first round. But Mills could not stay. He fell away badly under Charnley’s second round hooking offensive and when Mills was stopped in the third round with a cut eye it looked a one-way struggle” (Boxing News 3-12-54:14).
*Apr. 15 - Alf Drew W disq 1
(Boxing News 4-9-54:15).
*Apr. 15 - Freddy Woodman W disq 3
London featherweight champion; Albert Hall. (Boxing News 4-9-54:15).
*Apr. 23 - Malcolm Collins W pts
“Collins gave Charnley too much scope. He allowed Charnley to do all the work and during a corner hook-storm took without reply. Fatal (Boxing News 4-30-54:15).
*Apr. 23 - Richard McTaggart W 1
A.B.A. featherweight champion; Wembley. “Charnley took just half-a-round to dispose of McTaggart. First of a series of explosions started before the sound of the opening bell had faded away. Charnley leapt at the unfortunate McTaggart like a tiger, drove him to a corner and left-hooked him down for six. McTaggart spend the rest of the time getting up and down. Before he could do anything to stop the avalanche he ran into a hurricane of hooks that had him down for further counts of five, six and seven, then the referee intervened at the nintieth second” (Boxing News 4-30-54:14).
*Apr. 29 - J. Culwick, Mile End W 1
“Charnley employed the same explosive finish as he did in the Wembley final, beating the plucky Culwick in less than a round” (Boxing News 5-7-54:13)
*May 28 - Ken Thomas W 1
A.B.A. vs. I.S.B.A.; Albert Hall. “Thomas, who came in as a last-minute substitute, was no match for the hard-punching Charnley and was slammed down twice for nine before taking the full count” (Boxing News 6-4-54:15).
*Aug. 1 - G. Durey (Australia) W 1
“Charnley got his first shock of the Games in the opening seconds of his first series affair with Durey, who pushed Charnley off balance. But Charnley leapt to his feet and returned the compliment. Both engaged in a savage body-punching exchange and towards the end of the round, Durey emerged from another rally with a bad cut about the eye. The referee had no option but to send Durey to his corner and award the contest to Charnley” (Boxing News 8-13-54:14).
*Aug. 5 - Len Leisching (South Africa) L pts
Empire Games featherweight semifinalist; Vancouver. “Leisching knew exactly how to deal with a southpaw. Rights, rights and more rights” (Boxing News 8-13-54:14).

The record above from Boxing News 8-27-54:14.

[Gray-Fox]

I'd heard that this guy was good.

[Reeflodge]

My Father Freddy Woodman remembers Dave Charnley very well having fought with him twice in the 1950s.

My Father Freddie Woodman learnt to box in the Army whilst doing his National Service, he soon picked up the art of boxing and became a Army Champion along with his army mate Henry Cooper.
When he was discharged from the army in the early 1950s he joined Earlsfield Boxing Club in Earlsfield, London to carry on the sport he enjoyed so much in the Army.

He boxed as a Featherweight and boxed 5 times for England traveling all over Europe from Yugoslavia to Berlin, he won the London divisions title 8 years on the trot (I believe this record is still held by him today).
He reached the ABA Semi-Finals twice and actually knocked Dave Charnley (who fought for 2 world titles) out of the ring with a flurry of punches before getting disqualified later on in the fight, Charnley went on to win the Final.

Freddie was the only boxer to beat Bobby Neil as an amateur who went on to turn Professional after he beat him!
Freddie Woodman was the first Englishman to box a Russian in the former Soviet Union and Win!
In his long eventful amateur career he fought Bobby Neil, Dave Charnley and Frenchman Jean Michot, 3 outstanding boxers who all later turned Professional and fought for World Titles.

My father was often on the television boxing at such Venues as the Royal Albert Hall and Wembley.
If you know where we might be able to obtain Video footage of these fights please contact me, we would be very grateful If we could obtain them.

Freddie went on to run the Bishop Bonner Pub in Bethnal Green, he turned it into a Boxing theme pub with the walls covered in boxing memorabilia, we used to have film nights, and a lots of boxers past & present used to turn up such as, Henry Cooper, Maurice Hope, Ted Kid Berg and John H Stracey.

We also had another successful Pub in Horley surrey called the Station Tavern which he ran with wife Rita.

Fred is now retired still living in Horley, Surrey with his wife Rita.
If you wish to contact him drop us a email and we will make sure he gets your message.

Paul Woodman

[Jen80]

My father was Gilbert Durey who Charnley fought against in 1954 at the Empire Games. He passed away in February last year after having Alzheimer’s for 11 years. He loved to reminisce about his boxing days

[goose 5]

I can't comment on Charnley's amateur career but years ago Carlos Ortiz told me Charnley was an outstanding fighter.