TRIPLE CENTURION
Peter Buckley will be a special guest at the Home Counties Summer BBQ
AS reported, Home Counties EBA had a “brilliant” meeting last month at the newly refurbished Bricket Wood Social Club – and they’re due to meet again this Sunday ( July 25), 12.30pm for a 1pm start. To quote their latest newsletter: “We hope to have a great attendance as we will be finalising our Summer BBQ.” This is set for Sunday August 8 (again 12.30pm for 1pm) and among the special guests will be Birmingham’s Peter Buckley, who had an incredible 300 pro bouts. Peter will be selling signed copies of his autobiography, priced £20. If you’re thinking of going, and would like a copy, please contact Secretary Kieran Mccann (kiers20@hotmail.com), who can let Peter know how many to bring.
The BBQ will be free, but everyone’s asked to buy a raffle ticket and put a donation in the buckets at the food stand. And Kieran says: “Please bring new people along to see the fantastic work we do.” That’s so important – not every person who comes as a guest will join, but they will come away with a better idea about what EBAS do, and maybe tell their friends. I hope both meeting and BBQ go well, and look forward to receiving reports.
The Scottish EBA held their first meeting since the pandemic this month, and I was pleased to hear from Secretary Janice Craig that it was successful, though not many members attended. “People are still apprehensive about going out and mixing,” Janice said, but added that they would still hold the meetings, no matter how many (or how few) turn up. That’s good to hear, and SEBA’S next meeting (for members only) will be on Sunday August 8 at Hutchesontown Bowling
Club, 9 Oatlands Gate, Glasgow, starting at 12.30pm.
The latest SEBA newsletter reproduces a report of a sensational bout at Paisley Ice Rink in February 1961, which saw Glasgow’s “Cowboy” John Mccormack survive three knockdowns and eventually gain a 12-round verdict over Phil Edwards in a British middleweight title final eliminator. Mccormack had already won and lost the title to Terry Downes (later Home Counties EBA’S first president), and would go on to win the European title, but was stopped in six rounds when he met George Aldridge for the British title stripped from Downes for failure to defend. There’s also mention that this month ( July 11) marks the 60th anniversary of Downes winning the world middleweight title, forcing defending champion Paul Pender to retire after nine
rounds at Wembley. There’s an in-depth look at the Scottish scene in 1959. On February 10, Glasgow’s Peter Keenan defended his British and Empire (now Commonwealth) bantam titles against local hero Freddie Gilroy at a packed King’s Hall, Belfast. Gilroy was oddson favourite, and delighted his fans by halting the champion in the 11th round – it was the worst beating of Keenan’s distinguished career, and he never fought again. To quote: “The large crowd gave a noisy rendition of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling and were joined in song by the defeated Keenan. In recognition of his sportsmanship, the crowd spontaneously followed up with I Belong to Glasgow and Auld Lang Syne. Great sportsmanship, indeed, from both Keenan and the Irish fans – and that, sadly, is something we don’t always see today. It’s great to support a local boxer, but it shouldn’t descend to disrespecting the opponent.
Light-heavyweight Chic Calderwood (who is also pictured in the newsletter, along with “Cowboy” John Mccormack and Wishaw’s Dave Mooney) had a good year, with eight straight wins – culminating in a seventh-round stoppage of Jack Whittaker (also at Paisley Ice Rink) in a final eliminator for the British lightheavyweight title (vacant at the time). And in his first outing of 1960 Calderwood won the title, halting Arthur Howard in 13 rounds – and he followed that with a 12th-round cuts stoppage of Tonga’s Johnny Halafihi, for the vacant Empire belt. Tragically Calderwood was killed in a road crash in 1966, aged just 29.