SUPPORTING THE CAUSE
Details of some upcoming Ringside Charitable Trust fundraisers
I RECENTLY reported that Hastings EBA Chairman Dave Harris was planning to put on a special lunch to raise money for the Ringside Charitable Trust and other good causes. Full details appear in the current Brighton EBA newsletter, and are as follows: The event is a celebration of the lives of four boxing personalities who have recently passed on – Johnny Clark, Alan Minter, Geoff Hopcraft and Vince Heckman. The date is Sunday July 18 and the venue is The Azur, St Leonards-onsea – drinks from 12.15pm, luxury threecourse luncheon from 1.30pm.
After lunch a number of guest speakers will be paying tribute to each of the four. Numbers will be restricted to 250, and it will be first come, first served. Tickets are only £39.50 each, and that includes a souvenir programme. For tickets (which will be available from April 1), contact
Karen Knight on 0776 6886 580. Cheques payable to The Ringside Charitable Trust should be sent to Karen at 4 Elizabeth Court, 65 Wilbury Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 3EX. I’m sure this will be a sellout. It deserves to be.
Elsewhere in the newsletter are tributes to leading South African boxing historian Ron Jackson, who obviously couldn’t make his usual trip to the UK last year but hopes to in 2021, and former undisputed world middleweight champion Marvin Hagler, actually written (by Leigh Crompton) before Hagler’s recent death.
Hagler ripped the world title from Alan Minter at Wembley in September 1980, and, as Leigh notes, that fight “is remembered mainly for the terrible crowd disturbance when Marvin had his arm raised in victory.” I was there and the scenes, and the racist abuse, were appalling – but there could have been another factor. Minter was halted on a cut in the third round (though Hagler was well on top), and it’s always disappointing when the fans’ favourite loses quickly. But the undercard was extremely poor, and I’ve always wondered if some of the trouble was down to the fans feeling they hadn’t got value for money (Wembley tickets are always dear). A sensational main event doesn’t excuse a bad undercard, in my view, but if there had been some decent supporting fights the fans would have felt that at least they’d had something.
Leicester EBA, too, have always supported the Ringside Charitable Trust, and in their latest newsletter they highlight the sponsored abseiling of Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower in May. This is being organised by Andrew
Fairley, the man behind several successful fundraising events in the past. Among those taking the plunge will be former champions Tony Oakey (British lightheavyweight), Ashley Theophane (British super-lightweight) and Ross Minter (English welterweight), and Matt Christie. Well done to everyone, and to Birmingham’s Sophie Gallagher, who is reported to be doing a sponsored walk for the cause.
Elsewhere the newsletter looks at notable fights that took place in March, including (not surprisingly) the 1971 ‘Fight of the Century’ between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, and Alan Minter’s 1980 decision win over Vito Antuofermo to become undisputed world middleweight champion. And there’s a tribute to founder member Eric Gittins, who died last month at age 73. Eric is described as a “valued supporter” of the Association, and my condolences go to his family and friends.
The current Scottish EBA newsletter also recalls a prominent March battle – Glasgow’s Jim Watt’s WBC lightweight title defence against Northern Ireland’s Charlie Nash in 1980. Watt was dropped in the first round but came back to win in the fourth. There’s also a division-by-division look at Scottish boxing in 1955, and some interesting photos, including one of former amateur star Johnny Cheshire in action. Johnny couldn’t reproduce his amateur form in the pros, but did get to challenge Watt for the British lightweight title in January 1975 – he was halted in seven rounds, and never boxed again.