A thumping good match
QUESTION In the days of unlimited rounds, what was the longest boxing bout?
On APRIL 6, 1893, Andy Bowen (1867-94) and Jack Burke (1869–1942) fought for the lightweight title of the South at the Olympic Club in new Orleans, Louisiana, Bowen’s hometown. Bowen weighed 9st 5lb, a close match physically with Texas native Burke.
In that era, each round lasted three minutes and the fight was not concluded until ‘either man fall through weakness or otherwise’.
Burke, famous for taunting opponents, had the better of the early exchanges, but Bowen — whose nickname was ‘Iron’ — proved resilient. In round 48, he rallied to send Burke to the floor; the round ended before Burke could be counted out.
Later, Burke began experiencing acute pain in his hands — it later emerged he had broken several bones in both — and his attacking style was hampered. The result became a war of attrition that lasted several hours. Spectators began chanting Home, Sweet Home. As midnight passed, hundreds began leaving.
The fight lasted 110 rounds. It took seven hours and 19 minutes until referee John Duffy called ‘no contest’ after both men were too dazed to leave their corners.
Burke went on to fight for several more years. Bowen’s story ended in tragedy. The following year, in a bout against George ‘Kid’ Lavigne, after taking a powerful blow to the jaw in the 18th round, Bowen smashed his head on the hard wooden ring flooring and fractured his skull. He died the next morning having never regained consciousness.
The greatest number of rounds was 276 in four and a half hours when Jack Jones beat Patsy Tunney in Cheshire in 1825. This was before the Queensberry Rules were introduced in 1867.
Each round would last until someone was knocked down. At that point the fighters would go back to their corners and then the fight would start again.
George A. Lister, Bristol.
QUESTION What is Britain’s oldest surviving wooden church?
THE church of St Andrew, Greenstedjuxta-Ongar, commonly known simply as Greensted church, near Chipping Ongar in Essex, has a strong claim to be the oldest wooden church in the world.
Christian worship has been carried out on this site for around 1,300 years, ever since St Cedd began his conversion of the Saxon people around 654.
not all parts of the building are ancient. The white tower that dominates is comparatively young at a mere 400 years old. The roof is a Tudor replacement and the brickwork around the chancel is about 600 years old.
However, it is the upright wooden planks of the nave — made of logs that have been split lengthwise and have been dated to around 1060 — that make this such a notable building.
Probably originally covered in plaster, they were saved during a Victorian restoration. The bases had rotted so they were cut short and raised up on bricks.
An interesting detail of the nave is the leper’s squint on the north side. This is a small aperture through the oak wall thought to have been a place where lepers who, not allowed inside the church with the congregation, could watch the service and receive a blessing.
Gerald Winter, Brentwood, Essex.
QUESTION What became of Hugh Mundell, set to become Africa’s biggest reggae star?
HUGH MUNDELL wasn’t born in Africa, but in Jamaica on June 14, 1962. He did release an influential album called Africa Must Be Free By 1983.
unlike most of his contemporaries who were from tough urban areas of Kingston, Mundell had a middle-class upbringing. His father was a lawyer.
Close neighbour Boris Gardiner — well known in Britain for his 1986 hit I Wanna Wake up With You, which spent three weeks at no.1 — discovered Mundell and introduced him to producer Joe Gibbs, with whom he recorded his first track, Where Is natty Dread?, aged 13, though the track was never pressed to vinyl.
At Gibbs’s studio he was introduced to Augustus Pablo, one of reggae’s great producers, whose Rockers label nurtured the talent of fledgling artistes such as Earl Sixteen, Junior Reid and Yami Bolo. Pablo took Mundell under his wing.
Between 1976 and 1978, Mundell and Pablo put down the tracks for what would become Mundell’s debut LP, Africa Must Be Free By 1983.
Mundell wrote every song. It was a remarkably astute record, bemoaning black on black violence and, on Day Of Judgment, promoting Press freedom.
His earnest delivery saw the title track become a hit in Jamaica and the album was also popular in Europe.
In 1979, Mundell met Junior Reid at the legendary King Tubby’s studio. Mundell was so impressed by the youth’s voice that he took Reid to Pablo’s August Town studio, where he recorded Speak The Truth, Reid’s first song. The two became firm friends.
unfortunately, Mundell became a victim of the violence he so disdained. At the age of 21, after five albums, the father of three was murdered in his car by a gunman on Grant’s Pen Avenue, Kingston, on October 14, 1983. Reid, who was in the vehicle, witnessed the death.
The motive is unclear; one account claims that Mundell had sold his assailant a faulty refrigerator, another that it was a dispute over a woman. The killer was never caught.
Violence has often haunted the reggae scene. In 1976, masked gunmen broke into Bob Marley’s Kingston home and shot him several times. Another Wailer, Peter Tosh, was killed in his Kingston home on September 11, 1987.
Later that year, Carlton Barrett, the Wailers’ drummer, was killed by his wife’s lover. Osbourne Ruddock, aka King Tubby, one of the innovators of dub, was gunned down on February 6, 1989, outside his home in Kingston.
J. J. Moss, Newcastle upon Tyne.
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