MOUNTAIN MEN
Mountain fighters were the improbably tough trailblazers for the household names of Welsh boxing
WILDE, Winstone, Welsh, Driscoll, Calzaghe... no history of Welsh boxing would be complete without them. But what about the lesser-known men, the ones who made their mark away from the big arenas and bright lights? There’s a tribe of South Wales fighters, from The Valleys, who earned their stripes without even entering a ring. They called them mountain fighters. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they fought with bare fists on hills and mountains, out of reach of the law. Gloved boxing had not yet taken off in Wales, and although it was an underground sport, mountain fighting had a big following. The fights were notoriously brutal and raged on until one man was unconscious or could not carry on. But there were rules: no kicking, biting or gouging, and fighting stopped when a man went down. Each fighter also had a ‘fair play’ man to ensure the other participant stuck to the rules. The fights could last hours with unlimited rounds that ended only when a man was floored.
Mountain fighters were mostly coalminers or iron-workers by day. After a back-breaking shift and a couple of hours’ sleep, some would walk up to 12 miles across mountains to get to a fight. Almost every village had its own champion and some villages were 20-plus miles apart. Yet the fights would draw crowds from even further afield. And despite their illegality, the police mostly turned a blind eye.
As a teenager, Welsh flyweight legend Jimmy Wilde idolised a mountain fighter and fellow coalminer called Dai Davies. Davies, who became Wilde’s father-inlaw, taught him the fundamentals of boxing and would enthral him with tales of mountain fights. Though you won’t find them in many history books, William Samuels, Redmond Coleman, Morgan Crowther, Robert Dunbar, Dick Ambrose, Dublin Tom, Dan Pontypridd, Sam and Ivor Thomas and Shoni Engineer were among the top mountain men.
NIPPER PAT DALY APPEAL
IN 1950, Boxing News published a full-page feature about a gym in New North Road, Shoreditch. We wrote: “It is situated five minutes’ walk from Old Street Station, and seems to us to be ideal in every respect... It is spacious, well-lit, clean and warm, and includes all the necessary apparatus and equipment, including a hot shower. Furthermore, it is run by Pat Daly. Old-timers will not want reminding what a wonder-boxer was the Nipper in his heyday... Not all brilliant boxers make expert teachers, but Daly is the exception to the rule. We have personally seen him at work, and a more patient and untiring instructor it would be difficult to find...
“Daly’s pupils range from nine-yearold nippers, schoolboys, to junior and senior amateurs. It is nothing to see two midgets being coached followed by two members of the local police station. All are put through the immaculate Daly system that corrects faults before they have a chance to become habits.”
Nipper Pat Daly (real name Daley) had that particular gym for around four years. But he also ran gyms at various times in Cricklewood, Peckham, Bellingham and elsewhere. Nipper was my grandfather and I published a biography of him in 2011. I’m now rewriting that book and would love to hear from former pupils or people who knew him. Please email exboxers@gmail.com or call 07456 920 344 if you can help.