A UNIQUE DAY
Herol Graham gets a lunch to remember
IT WASN’T an EBA event as such, but this month’s charity lunch in aid of Herol “Bomber” Graham was held at the Home Counties EBA HQ – Bricketwood Social Club, St Albans – and hosted by HCEBA Chairman Bob Willliams, along with BBBOFC inspector Dan Frost. I was delighted to hear that it was a tremendous success.
“A fantastic day,” Bob said, “with an informative and blatantly honest – and at times very amusing – question and answer session with the ‘Bomber.’ Lovely food, courtesy of Sam Cowan, and nonstop fight footage of Herol in action.
“We had 80 attentive guests, who were very appreciative of Herol. Special surprise guest John Conteh MBE was also on the top table, and was exchanging some great banter – much to everyone’s amusement.
“I conducted the Q&A session, as well as the raffle and auction – which went extremely well, with all proceeds going to Herol.
“A unique day in which we had in attendance many very knowledgeable fans viewing the greatest British fighter never to win the world title exchanging banter with quite possibly the greatest British world champion. A massive thank you to my wife Shlomit (doorman), my daughter Jodie (raffle ticket seller), Dan Frost, the fantastic staff and management at Bricketwood Social Club and everyone who attended.”
That last point is so important. A lot of work goes into organising these events – and to no avail if people don’t attend. This deserved to succeed – as Bob said, Herol Graham was a fine boxer who won British and European titles at super-welter and middleweight but lost three world title bids. In fact, all six of his career losses (against 48 wins) came in major title bouts.
The current Scottish EBA newsletter has a feature on Vice-president Phil Mcintyre. In his time Phil has been fighter, trainer, matchmaker, world amateur referee, judge and administrator.
In 1974 he became the youngestever European referee and judge, and five years later, aged 32, he passed the world refereeing exams, enabling him to officiate all over the world.
Phil has a huge collection of boxing memorabilia and films, and has started showing the latter at SEBA meetings. This month he showed some of the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson’s fights, which were thoroughly enjoyed, and he’s happy to take requests for future showings.
Maybe someone will ask him to showcase that fine Scottish featherweight, the late Evan Armstrong, whose picture appears in the newsletter. Armstrong was a terrific battler, who never gave up – often coming from behind to grind an opponent down. He won the British featherweight title twice, and the Commonwealth crown.
I was lucky enough to see his first British title win, over Jimmy Revie at London’s Grosvenor House in July 1971. After 10 rounds the champion was well ahead – but Armstrong refused to be discouraged, and Revie’s tank suddenly ran dry in the second half of the 11th. And the 12th lasted just 32 seconds – Armstrong the winner by knockout.
Other come-from-behind wins that would make great viewing were Evan’s two bouts with Howard Hayes (both ending in the sixth round, on cuts): his non-title eighth-round KO of Vernon Sollas (now an active London EBA member): and his final British defence against Allan Richardson, now Leeds EBA President.
This always promised to be a thriller. After 10 rounds (of a scheduled 15) Armstrong seemed to be trailing. After a furious talking-to in the corner, Evan came out for the 11th, floored Richardson with a big left hook, and seconds later it was over.
That bout also involved the Commonwealth title, which Armstrong had won by beating Australia’s Bobby Dunne in Brisbane. Evan had just one more fight, dropping the Commonwealth title to Ghana’s David Kotei via 10th-round retirement. Kotei later became WBC champion.