Boxing clever with Audley
QUESTION Is there a connection between Repton boxing club in East London and Repton in Derbyshire?
Housed in a former Victorian bath house on Cheshire street, Bethnal Green, the boxing club has been an integral feature of London’s east end for more than a century.
Its origins may seem curious to us, but Repton Boys Boxing Club was founded in 1884 by Repton public school, 160 miles away in derbyshire.
In a classic example of Victorian philanthropy, the school visited the poorest parts of the capital determined to channel the energies of directionless young men by teaching them the art of pugilism, which was part of the public school curriculum.
Boxing became a popular sport in the east end, offering working-class men the chance to gain fame and fortune — and a tough reputation to boot. The Kray twins, Reggie and Ronnie, learned to box at Repton, turning professional in 1951 and appearing at the Royal Albert Hall on the same bill as their elder brother Charlie.
Great fighters who were taught their skills at the boxing club include world welterweight champion John H. stracey and world light middleweight champion Maurice Hope. olympians who started there include Mickey Carter, Billy Taylor, dave odwell, Graham Moughton, Gary Barker, sylvester Mittee and Audley Harrison (a gold medallist).
For the past 40 years, it has been run by david Robinson with legendary head coach Tony Burns.
under the arcade of the bathhouse is the competition ring, around which are bags and punching balls. Fighters aspire to have their picture on the wall of fame next to the ‘No guts no glory’ sign.
It’s a favourite venue for movie director Guy Ritchie, featuring in Lock, stock And Two smoking Barrels, with Vinnie Jones, and The Gentlemen, starring Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant and Matthew McConaughey.
Anthony Pennington, Twickenham, Middlesex.
QUESTION Did another artificial waterway pre-date Ferdinand de Lesseps’s Suez Canal?
WHEN the suez Canal in egypt opened on November 17, 1869, it was the first to offer a direct thoroughfare connecting the Mediterranean to the Red sea through the Isthmus of suez.
However, there have been canals linking the Red sea to the Mediterranean via tributaries of the Nile since Ancient egyptian times. These are collectively known as the Canal of the Pharaohs.
sesostris (Pharaoh senusret II or III) began work on the canal in 1850 BC. It passed through Wadi Tumilat, a dry river valley east of the Nile River delta, to connect the Pelusiac branch of the Nile with the salt water Bitter Lakes in the Isthmus of suez. The land has since risen and the lakes no longer exist.
The problem with building a canal in the middle of a desert is that it takes constant maintenance to stop the sands smothering it. As a result, the canal only survived during periods of strong leadership until the 13th century BC.
A later canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first, was constructed in the reign of Necho II in 600 BC, but a more successful version was completed by darius I of Persia in 500 BC.
To celebrate, he built five monuments in Wadi Tumilat, dubbed darius the Great’s suez Inscriptions. Texts in old Persian, elamite, Babylonian and egyptian commemorate his achievement.
The best preserved, the Chalouf stele, records: ‘King darius says: “I am a Persian; setting out from Persia, I conquered egypt. I ordered that this canal should be dug from the river that is called the Nile and flows in egypt to the sea that begins in Persia. Therefore, when this canal had been dug as I had ordered, ships went from egypt through this canal to Persia, as I had intended.” ’
The Canal of the Pharaohs continued its off-and-on existence for a millennium. It had a major resurgence under the Ptolemys but, by Cleopatra’s reign, was once again blocked in places by sand.
In the 2nd century BC, Roman emperor Trajan reopened the waterway, calling it Trajan’s River.
It continued to be used during the Arab rule of egypt until Ad770 when Abbasid Caliph Abu Jafar abruptly closed it. Historians surmise he wanted to prevent his enemies from using the canal to ship men and supplies from egypt to Arabia.
Dr Ken Warren, Glasgow.
QUESTION Has anyone later discovered they’ve been introduced to a famous person without realising it?
FURTHER to earlier answers, the year was 1966, I was 20 and had just returned from two years in the Merchant Navy.
My mother took me to a posh drinks party in dartmouth, devon. The other guests were in their mid-40s, apart from an elderly lady sitting on her own.
she asked me to join her, saying: ‘I gather you have just returned from a round-the-world adventure. Tell me all about it.’ I spent the evening chatting to her, discussing everything from sex to religion as well as my naval exploits.
As we left, our host asked if I had enjoyed talking to Agatha Christie!
Tony Bovill, Sunningdale, Berks.
IN THE 1980s, I was a Nursing sister at a health resort in Hertfordshire. My job was to interview guests on arrival.
one saturday afternoon I was on duty when the receptionist rang through to tell me Mr Papas, a pleasant young man, had arrived. I proceeded with the spiel, which included asking his occupation. He told me he played in a band. I replied: ‘My husband plays in a local band.’
Later, after the new guest had gone off to enjoy the facilities, the receptionist asked me how I had got on with Mr Papas. ‘Fine,’ I replied.
‘You do know it was George Michael?’ she said. eek!
Pam Wells, Aylesbury, Bucks.
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