In recent years, many criticism of significant competitions in Great Britain has appeared and it’s effortless to believe that this is a contemporary phenomenon. Many say that in “senior good times” everything worked well and we did not have these problems with something like a frequency that seems to be today. It wasn’t until 2005 that British Title Waste was captured by three judges before the judge was the only arbiter. As part of the senior system, I remember some debatable verdicts, but few of them caused the same number of arguments and debates as the decision made by judge Sid Nathan to Dave Needham against Pat Cowdell [above] In their competition from 1979 with the title of British featherweight.

I am lucky that I have all SID results cards in my collection, because they were given his son when Sid died in 2016, and they make quite fascinating reading, especially when they are compared with reports that appeared in the BN.

Bob Mee participated in the competition between Needham and Cowdell, which took place on September 18 at Civic Hall, Wolverhampton at the account promoted by Ron Gray. Bob informed: “Sid Nathan needed a police escort from Ringside after making the decision that Dave Needham overtook the local pretender Pat Cowdell to keep the title of British featherweight. When Nathan raised Needham’s arm at the end of fifteen bitter rounds, the crowd sold out. The crowded crowd went crazy. The soles, despite the soles, despite the soles, despite the error, despite the fact that despite the soles.

SID scored a competition to Needham until 147-146, which corresponds to 8-6-1 in rounds. Bob Mee won Cowdella in three rounds and was surprised by the verdict.

Two men were rivals from Midland and they were both endowed with amateurs. Cowdell was an Olympic representative in 1976, each of them was in the European championships and both won the gold medals of Commonwealth. Needham was only two years older than his rival, but he was much more experienced as a professional with 35 competitions behind him compared to 11. Bn Cowdella, who thought Cowdell would throw the fight with his stab, but also recognized that “Clash has all the features of a classic confrontation between the two most brilliant boxing exponents.”

Nathan’s results card reveals that the fight has fallen into three clear patterns. Cowdell won four of the first six rounds before Needham, and then won four in a row, winning seventh place to 10th. The last fifth was evenly widespread with winning two, winning two and ending rounds, gaining equal results. It was enough for Needham to keep his title.

The Bob Mee report reflected it quite carefully, but his main dispute with the official verdict concerns the first six rounds when he thought Cowdell was much more dominant. Regardless of the result, the competition met expectations, and thanks to Undercard, including Midland’s favorites Paul Chance, Mickey Baker and Roy Skeldon, it was an excellent boxing.

The management ordered an immediate rematch between two warriors, which took place at Royal Albert Hall seven weeks later. On the arranged card with the participation of Jim Watt in a successful defense of the title of WBC and Kevin Finnegan, beating Tony Sibson for the title of British medium weight, Cowdell stood a record, straightening Needham in over 15 high -quality rounds. This time the judge was Jim Brimmell, who fired for six to four or even five.

Dave Needham died 14 years ago, but Pat is still with us, one of the most talented boxers that I saw on the British ring.

George Biddles from Leicester lived and breathed the game in a 50-year-old career as a boxing manager and a promoter. Starting a petite stable of fighters from the card in the mid -1920s, George had little to show his demanding work about 30 years later. In 1934 he managed to lead Pat Butler to the British welterweight title, but George was better known for managing such as George Marsden and Len Wickwar, two men who occupy the record of most competitions in this country. After the war, he continued with Ric Sanders, Jeff Tite and Roy Davies, all of which had many competitions, winning most of them. It seemed that George could ever produce the world champion, but then Hogan Kid Bassey came. This Nigerian came to Great Britain in 1952 and overtook from Liverpool for a manager and former fighter, Peter Banasko. He lost only two of his 24 competitions in his hometown and raised the Nigerian fly and Bantam on the way. Over the next four years, Bassey took part in 47 competitions for manager Banasko and achieved his greatest success, winning the title Empire Feather Wweight, beating Billy Spider Kelly in Belfast in 1955.

At the end of 1956, Bassey parted with Banasko and George Biddles bought their contract for 600 pounds. It was a huge gambling for Biddles and needed a quick return on investment. He began to be interested in the Nigerian, with his ordinary talent for Ballyhoo, then adapted him to Jean Sneyers in Belgium in a competition described as an unofficial eliminator of the world title. When Hogan was detained in the fourth round with a cut forehead, it seemed that Biddles could make a massive mistake. Annual grades published by The Ring Magazine at the end of 1956 Sandy SaddlerCherif Hamia and Miguel Berrios, so not everything has been lost yet.

Then Saddler was injured in a car accident, and the title of world champion was considered free. Bassey was included in a number of official eliminators to find a fresh master. Unfortunately, the Empire Committee ordered Bassey to defend his title against Percy Lewis from Trinidad.

Biddles was not restless, suspecting that a needy performance could threaten Bassey’s place in these eliminators, but Bassey insisted that the fight continue. Although he managed to defeat Lewis, the victory only took place after a demanding fight. The path was now clear to the competition eliminating with Miguel Berrios, and it took place in Washington in April 1957, and Nigerian skating for straightforward, unanimous winning points.
Then Biddles realized his ambition through his lifetime when he took Bassey to Paris to meet Cherif Hamia in order to obtain an empty title of the world featherweight. Coach Charlie Fox from ST Helens, a good petite hook in his time, prepared Bassey for perfection with high -class sparring partners, Sammy Odell and Teddy Peckham.

The party arrived early to Paris to properly get used to the conditions and it was a wise decision on the part of Biddles, because Bassey pounded the Frenchman to defeat in 10 unilateral rounds to become the first world champion from the UK from Randolph Turpin six years earlier. BN announced that “Hamia was beaten in a shocking, helpless Hulk in 10th place [sic] The rune of concentrated fire-fighting force and fury, which gave the rene Schemann judge only two alternatives-alboly stop fighting, or allow 26-year-old French Algerian to cross the canvas. “

And so George Biddles had his first world champion, and his gambling paid off. Bassey finally lost the title with the unfortunate Davey Moore in 1959, and George never managed another world champion, although he led Richard Dunn to the title competition with Muhammad Ali in 1976.

Before the First World War, there were not many better fighters than Johnny Summers, Freddie WelshOwen Moran, Jim Driscoll and Ted Kid Lewis and one man fought everyone with them. Seaman Arthur Hayes was one of the best groups of fighters at that time who never won the British title, although he approached.

Arthur was a navy boxer before he became a professional in 1904, and in two years he became a leading feather scale. He turned against Johnny Summers, later a British champion in both delicate and welterweight, in the National Sporting Club in 1906, losing a hard-fighting 20-runda in points. The distance of lost meetings with Moran, Welsh (twice) and Lewis also went. Driscoll was the only of these groups of great fighters who detained Hayes, and did it in the 1910 competition with the title of British featherweight. Driscoll simply outclassed his man, then stopped him in the sixth round of a unilateral fight.

Despite this loss, Hayes was still good enough to command immense bags, and his services were very sought after, where he can often be imported to test the abilities of local talents. In this sense, he played a role similar to the role of today’s journeymen, except that Arthur usually won. In September 1912 he went to Manchester to face Allan Porter from Salford in 15-Rund. Arthur was already in Manchester twice this year, stopping both Billy Marchant and Harold Walker in winning competitions, and he was looking for a hat-trick.

Allan Porter is a warrior in which I had long -term interest. In 1912 he laid a decent race, and the fight with Hayes was considered a 50-50 match. Earlier this year, Porter passed with Ted Kid Lewis and since then he won five at trot to start a match with Hayes.

BN informed that “from the fifth round Hayes led a porter from the pillar to post and hit him where and when he liked it. Porter was certainly a game and persevered against hopeless opportunities, but the punishment was so rigid that it causes that the judge intervenes in the returned thirteenth round when he was holding the order.” It was a failure from which the porter would not recover. Ten days later, Porter met George Mackness of Kettering in 10-Rund at the Liverpool stadium, and because Mackness lost the previous five competitions, it was to be uncomplicated for Salford Fighter. Within a minute of the initial Mackness he had solemn problems of the porter, and in the seventh judge stopped the fight because Porter was not able to go to his Gablads because he fell after returning to the corner. Three doctors immediately participated in it and, when responding to treatment, partially revived, but it was believed that it was advisable to be removed to the hospital. “

Later he had a recurrence, fell unconscious and turned out to suffer from brain shock. He finally came the next day in the evening. It was a beating that he suffered from the hands of Arthur Hayes, led to the collapse of this pretty warrior. Within five years, the porter was dead, his body lost forever in the mud of the Western Front.

Seaman Hayes began to question the eliminator of the British featherweight title in 1915, losing to Llewew from Porth, the final master, for the 10th round, and BN stated that “under a hail of blows a brave seam went outside, but with his unexplored spirit as always.” He retired in 1924, the winner of 95 of his 160 professional competitions.