Armstrong remembered

Boxing

Kent boxing historian Harold Alderman has reported the death of former bantamweight Cecil Armstrong in his 80s. Mr Alderman, from Aylesham, said that Armstrong, who also lived in the village, was the first from the area to figure in the British amateur ratings, being ranked No.10 in 1952. As a coal miner all his working life, Mr Armstrong represented Snowdown Colliery in the National Coal Board Championships doing well every year he entered. However, his father advised him to give up the sport as he couldn’t get the training facilities other NCB boxers in other parts of the country could call upon. This was also true for any bouts he contested with non-ncb fighters from outside Kent. In later years, he was well known as a county official in the darts world.