Loss of CI 'sovereignty' did boxing a disservice

NEXT month close on three hundred men in DJs will pack into St Pierre Park's function room for the first of this winter's dinner boxing shows. Year in, year out, they show up for their regular dose of after-dinner pugilism, all washed down with a few beers, whiskies or wine. In some cases, all three and in multiples.

But there would be no shows, no boxing at all here, were it not for the Amalgamated Boys Club, the only club in the island.

The new season is significant in that it is 40 years since the ABC staged their first show, an all-junior event in the cramped confines of their St Martin's headquarters.

Boxing had all but died in Guernsey when the ABC opened their doors late in 1966.

Not a single punch had been thrown competitively in a Guernsey ring for two years and, indeed, the swinging 60s had been more the statuesque 60s until then, with shows very few and far between after the golden era of the 1930s, 40s and 50s when the Channel Islands were recognised as a bonafide region and were able to stage their own championships.

But by 1962 when Keith Gallier, a former northern counties star, was the only winner for the Delancey Progressive Boys' Club in their 10-bout show against a combined team from Southampton and the Isle of Wight, the sport was sinking fast.

It was the first local show to feature UK boxers for years and, by rights, the visitors should have won 10-0 as Gallier was very lucky to win and give some joy to the partisan 650 crowd in St George's Hall.

But behind the scenes the island's clubs were paying the price for a lack of men to run the sport and train the boxers.

'All the clubs went through a bad time and that's why we set up the Amalgamated,' said Les Guille, the club's first head trainer, a past president and a stalwart of the local boxing scene.

'There weren't enough people like Fred Damarell, for whom the boxing club was their life,' he added.

Clubs folded and while Elizabeth College continued to recognise boxing as part of their sporting curriculum until well into the 60s, the old parish clubs disappeared.

Guille recalls the great nights at St George's Hall where long before the fire service had a say in how many people could pile into one building, upwards of a thousand would squeeze into the old esplanade building near the Salerie.

'I've seen people turned away, there were so many. The gangways would be full. They were good crowds.'

And they saw good boxing and many talented, brave fighters.

Men such as Les Collins, the Veron brothers, Marcel Branquet, Jonny Kreckeler, Ronnie Duncombe, Reg Wallbridge, 'Bunno' Ogier and Kenny Simon.

At that time Town had its own club under the guise of St Peter Port Boys Club, as did St Sampson's on South Side in the form of the Delancey Progressive, St Martin's, which was to become the future HQ for the Amalgamated Boys Club, and there was also one in the west.

The St Martin's club dated back to 1935 when it was opened by no less a celebrity than the Duke of Windsor, later to become King Edward VIII.

The Occupation years were particularly heady ones for the sport and not only for those sent spinning to the canvas with stars in their eyes.

Shorn of entertainment, islanders loved their boxing and their trips to the Regal Cinema to see the best local boys in action.

They included the likes of Collins, arguably the best pound- for-pound amateur fighter the island ever saw.

In three years between 1941 and 1944, upwards of a dozen tournaments were staged.

It was not easy, especially given that stalwarts of the sport such as Major R. G. 'Jock' Davies, trainers such as Billy Bennett and D. Perriam and J. J. Eveson, the popular master of ceremonies, had been taken off to Germany.

But with Kennedy Bott entertaining on the organ and spirits lifted by the combination of the pugilism and community singing at the interval, a good time was had by all except those laying on the canvas wondering where they were.

By the time the Amalgamated Boys Club opened for the first time on Monday 31 October, the sport was in urgent need of an injection of enthusiasm.

Stan Saunders provided the leadership and was the first president of the ABC which benefited from the pooled resources of the defunct St Peter Port, St Martin's and Delancey.

Head trainer of the new club was Guille who remained in the role for many years.

He fondly recalls the glory days when the CI staged their own championships, before they became victims of inter-island squabbles.

'The London ABA took it away from us and now the two islands are in different sections of the ABA.

'It's a shame because when we were doing it ourselves we could arrange CI championships, whatever.'

And who were the best?

Through gritted teeth, Guille plumps for the Caesareans.

'I would have said Jersey were probably that little bit stronger. They seemed to be very strong in the light and bantamweights. But they had nothing to touch the Verons and Kenny Simon.'

By the late 1970s a second club was operating with Gerry Walsh, formerly a trainer at the ABC, having formed the Sarnia Boxing Club.

While the Amalgamated provided the bulk of the boxers for the dinner shows, Walsh staged his own sell-out tournaments on Sunday evenings at the Carlton Hotel.

But when training premises were denied Walsh, the club folded and fine boxers such as Matt Walsh, Chris Godfrey, Hughie Brush, Paul Main and Paul Rose were lost to a sport which returned to a one-club operation.

*Next week: Guernsey's greatest fighters.