On these pages I once mentioned that Jackie Turpin is working on the last British boxing build in 1977. I think I am very content that I entered the boxing cabin to watch a few fists live as this part of the game, so vital in his time, disappeared forever.

The stand belonged to Ron Taylor, a Welsh, born in 1910, who spent his professional life traveling on highways and farewell to the country with his stand, setting up in the villages, towns from Penzanka to Scotland, with a slight retinue of boxers who were ready to challenge all chimneys for several years.

Fortunately, my good friend John Jarrett was also there this year and interviewed Bn On July 8, 1977, Ron told him that “the stands have been in my family since 1880, but I will be the last. You can’t get boys today and it will be harder every year. But I will try as long as possible, it is in my blood.” Ron fought for the next 20 years and finally died in the delayed nineties in 2006.

Of course, the stands were great before the war. Men like Jimmy Wilde, Freddie Mills, Benny Lynch and Tommy Farr learned their trade, and at that time there were over fifty stands. After the war, everything changed. In 1947, the Control Council decided to prohibit licensed boxers to participate in Booth fights. This resolution turned out to be very unpopular, especially in the case of the BN editor, who stated that “for years it has been generally recognized that the boxing stand was a cradle of British boxing and is a way to provide novices of their early experience and mature boxers with intensive training for vast competitions. people and that it will become the last hope for a good “he has”, more mercy. “

The Council believed that the stands were conducted in direct competition with licensed promoters, using the same boxers, and that it was unfair to their license winners. The slopes have never fully recovered from this result, and people like Ron Taylor became occasional. Jackie Turpin had no license at the time that John and I saw him in 1977 because he fought the last professional competition in 1975. He was one of “Ma” that it was Bn The editor spoke about 30 years earlier.

In the accompanying photo, the Sam McKEWN stand in the delayed 1920s, you can feel how popular these attractions were. McKEWN, Sam Sam, embraced his trade around the fair to the southwest and among the four boxers at the exhibition, I am quite sure that it is Dixie Brown on the left. I have no idea who the other three are, but they will be leading professionals from the region. Dixie boxed in 1914–1944, winning 44 of his 103 competitions, and he was typical for this kind of man with whom you could meet if you like your chances to survive three 90-second rounds at the stands. Dixie probably stood in the face of about 10 or 15 local “hardmen” every week, and few of them saw “Fiver”, which they tried to win by surviving the course. From the perspective of Dixie, his combined handbags from about 15 competitions can be increased a year, spending four months in the summer, traveling around the area with Mr. McKEown. He would have many adventures on an open road, many memories and many challenging scraps with local challenging guys. Elated days!

When Jim Watt defeated Howard Davis at Ibrox Park in Glasgow, under the title WBC Lightweight on June 7, 1980, he continued the long tradition of great Scottish boxing masters in many immense football stages in the country. Promoters counted on a crowd of 20,000 people tonight, but much less than this appeared in goals, because the persistent rain tried to ruin this opportunity.

Twenty years earlier, almost exactly until the day, the elegant Calderwood defeated this great Tong, Johnny Halafihi, for the title of community of the community community at Firhill Park, Particka Thistle FC. It was the 12th time in which significant boxing events were placed.

In 1931, 11,000 people appeared to see Jim Maharg defeated Jim Campbell for the title of Scottish Flying. The again expected turnout was about 30,000-it seems that the promoters consistently overstated enthusiasm for immense boots in the city. There are many other similar cases. The remaining 10 promotions exhibited at Firhill Park took place in the 1950s, and eight of them contained wonderful miniature Bantamweight, Peter Keenan. They believe that despite his size Piotr would be the choice of most people on your side in street fight, he was really as challenging as nails. He had three British title battles on the spot, and also won, lost, and then regained the European title.

Cathkin Park, a house of a long -free professional side, Third Lanark FC, was another football field that regularly hosted boxing. The land, located in Croshill, staged the nine finals of the Scottish Cup in the second half of the 19th century, and his first boxing tournament in 1934, when Benny Lynch was another one, who defeated Jim Campbell for the title of Scottish Flyight. 16,000 were present and they saw another master class when Benny completely outclassed his man in full 15 years.

In the 1930s, six further events took place in the 1930s. Peter Keenan defeated Jake Tula in the title of Wweca Empire Bantamweight in 1955, and then, in 1958, Charlie Hill defeated Chic Brogan for the title of British fertile weight on the Act, once again, Peter Keenan, who overtook the American, Billy Peacock. This time over 25,000 appeared to see a great night of sport. The earth still exists, although very ruined.

Shawfield Park was another often used place. Clyde FC was in this area and was used 15 times in boxing between 1930 and 1941. It is best to remember Benny Lynch, who defeated Peter Kane there in 1937 in the epic competition for the title of World Flyweight. Lynch was 24 years elderly at the time, and Kane only 19 years elderly, but they issued a battle forever before over 40,000. Lynch had previously defended his British and world title of Flyight’s weight in the same place against Palad Palmer from Batterse a year earlier. The competition was for the first time when the world championship title was issued north of the border, and 31 565 paid for it.

Lynch also in Celtic Park in 1937, surprising that he lost points with Jimmy Warnock about Belfast, and this place was also used in 1949, when Billy Thompson defeated the local idol of Harry Hughes from Wishaw to keep his British featherlight title. Once again, teenage Peter Keenan also appeared on this bill.

Of course, the largest of all football areas in Scotland was Hampden Park. I remember listening to radio relations when Celtic played against Leeds United in the semi -final of the European Cup in 1970. It is challenging to believe now, but there were 136,000. In the years 1941–1949 there were seven boxing tournaments, and the great favorite was Jackie Paterson, who won and defended its title World Flyweight. About 40,000 saw him defeating Peter Kane in 1943, and 50,000 watched his victory over Joe Curran three years later.

Great competitions, great masters and great places.

In 2019, I wrote about the unwilling end of Jacek Bodell’s career, the British heavyweight master in 1969–1970, and again in 1971–1972. Unfortunately, Jack will be remembered for the last three competitions of his career, very speedy lost over the space at the hands of Jerry Quarry, Jose Urtain and Danny Mcalinden. Time to fix the image we have.

Jack took part in 71 professional competitions, from which he won 58. He won the title of ABA ABA Delicate-Heveight Veight against Johnny Evans Hammersmith, and six weeks later he managed to win a silver medal at the European Championships, which took place this year in Belgrade. He had to pull out of the semi -finals with cut eyebrows when he had every chance to pass. Jack was also a miner of coal and did very well in the miners championships, and then such an integral part of the amateur season.

Bodell became a professional in 1962 and won 36 of the first 42 competitions with several excellent victories over Dave Ould, Ron Gray, Ron Redrup, Johnny Halaphi, Freddie Mack and Billy Daniels. His shortcomings were obvious from the very beginning because he was inclined to lose in relation to hefty Hitters. Despite this, he was considered good enough to fight the highest rated American, Thad Spencer in the Belle Vue competition in 1966 in Manchester. Once again he appeared briefly, being stuck in two rounds.

He rose again with six uncomplicated victories before Henry Cooper repeated a feat with a two -level victory of the British title in Molineaux, the house of Wolverhampton Wanderers, in 1967. Jack could forgive the game at that moment because he seemed to have reached his limit.

However, the next year he won another five in trotters, with four wins in the space, one of which was victory with nine rounds over Brian London in the eliminator of the British heavyweight title, and at the end of the year he was again a claimant for Cooper’s title.

Four subsequent wins in 1969 brought him the title competition with Carl Gizzi. They both questioned the free title, recently abandoned by “our” enerery “, and this time Jack issued a much better program, ahead of the Welsh in fifteen rounds. In this way he became the first Southpaw to win the title of British heavyweight. As you might expect, he lost to Cooper in his first defense. Once again, Jack could forgive that he withdrew from the game, but got stuck on her, and in 1971 he was adapted to Joe Bugner, the novel champion. The Bugner was then the rising British Boxing star, taking the Cooper lid in a controversial competition, which I think, won the fair and square.

Few gave him a chance with the teenage master, but Jack proved that his many doubts were wrong. BN informed that “Bodell, slandered the clumsiness of Southpaw, took the titles of Bugner, European and the community of nations with a firm fight. He took control from the first round and made a huge margin. Bugner faced some defeat, unless he stopped Bodella, and it never looked like Edinburg Judge George Smith shot Bodella.

Bodell won the title of ABA, was twice as high as the British heavyweight master, and also won both European titles and the community of nations. Jack died in 2016 at the age of 76, after a long fight against dementia. He has achieved much more than much hefty weight earlier or since then, and despite his obvious shortcomings, he does not deserve to remember the losses themselves.

He is not one of our better masters, admittedly, but as a man who never gave up, neither inside or outside the ring, he won his place in the British history of boxing.