Contents
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Harry Andrews: The Stamshaw Slam . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Arthur ‘Kid’ Connor: The Punching Publican . . . . . . . 25
Matty George: The Forgotten Pompey Boxer Who
Fought Some of the Best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Pat Mills: The Gosport Globetrotter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Len Lemaux: Pompey’s Pocket Hercules . . . . . . . . . . 45
Billy Streets: A Pompey Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Monty Brown: Pompey’s Middleweight Stylist . . . . . . . 70
Steve Goldring: Never Give Up, Never Give In . . . . . . . 77
Harry Vine: Havant’s Middleweight Marauder . . . . . . 84
Stoker Bob Reynolds and The Sound of Music . . . . . . . 95
Johnny Smith: Boxer Who Epitomised the Fighting
Spirit of the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Wayne Evans: Bantamweight Battler and Pompey’s
Adopted Son . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119
Paul Dyer: Don’t Look Back In Anger . . . . . . . . . . . .130
Lights Out: Mickey Driscoll, The Fighter’s Fighter . . . .147
Jason Lepre and a Curious Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Tony Oakey: Hold On Tightly, Let Go Lightly . . . . . . 170
Andy Gatenby and The Hinge of Fate . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Floyd Moore: Against All Odds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Dig The New Breed: Pompey’s Boxing Future? . . . . . . 216
Clash of the Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224
Introduction
U
nsurprisingly for a city that has for centuries
sent men to war Portsmouth has produced some
excellent fighting men, and continues to do so to
this day. Pompey must rank as one of the most historically
significant cities in Britain, largely due to the presence and
exploits of the Royal Navy whose home the city is, and there
can be few families locally who are without a connection of
some sort or other to the Senior Service. The navy and the
sprawling base that serves it remains the largest single employer
in the region, and many of the men you will read about in this
book were employed in the dockyard. In addition the navy has
produced many fine boxers itself and without the fistic talent
that has emerged over the years from the navy and dockyard,
professional boxing in Portsmouth would have been very
different indeed.
Today, trainer Mike Ballingall deserves much credit for
reinvigorating the professional scene locally, while amateur
coaches such as Bob Taylor, Colin Hooker, Darren Blair, and
Q. Shillingford work ceaselessly to nurture the next generation
of boxers.
As always it is the trainers working far away from the
spotlight in often run-down clubs who give up their time year
in and year out without fanfare or financial reward to train
12
Introduction
youngsters who are the heart and soul of the sport and they
have my boundless respect.
Portsmouth is of course the country’s only island city and in
many ways the city’s culture and her people are a reflection of
that uniqueness. Perhaps comparable only to the old East End
of London, Pompey people remain overwhelmingly groundlevel and working class and their lives have been shaped by the
proximity of the docks, the experiences of intense bombing
during the war and of being a very real part of front-line Britain
in times of conflict. Together these factors have bred a fiercely
tribal sense of identity, personified most obviously in the
passionate support of Portsmouth Football Club that remains
unwaveringly loyal through the ebb and flow of the club’s
fortunes and whose fans have a big reputation all of their own.
Lesser known to many however will be the equally passionate
love of boxing that has existed in the city for the last hundred
years and more, and believe me if you go to watch boxing
anywhere in the country and there are fans from Portsmouth
present, you’re going to hear all about it.
Many people who pick up this book may have no know­ledge
of the many great fighters to come from Portsmouth and its
surrounds such as Fareham, Gosport, Waterlooville, Leigh Park
and Havant and I very much hope you enjoy reading of their
lives and times. As the title indicates here are only some of the
best fighters from the island city, for it would be impossible give
an in-depth profile of all who have gloved up for pay although
there are many who deserve to be included, but due to space
considerations have not: men such as Harvey Cheatle, Seaman
Broadbent, Jack Fiford, Archie Hannan, Jim Ware and Billy
Pleace and to anyone who feels I have neglected a particular
fighter please do get in touch with me via the publishers and if
there is a demand for it then perhaps a second volume profiling
boxers not included in this book can be produced. Equally if you
find any mistakes I would be grateful if you would contact me.
13
POMPEY’S BOXING PAST
It has been a privilege to write about these fighting men
from a fighting city, and perhaps restore them to their rightful
and deserved place in memory and the city’s history. Quite
simply we’re Pompey and we’re proud.
14
Harry Andrews:
The Stamshaw Slam
Born: October 1892 – Died: March 1959.
Active: 1910 – 1922
54 W: 34 L: 14 D: 5 ND: 1 – Feather, Light, Welter
W
ith thirty-four wins from fifty-four fights
Portsmouth’s Harry Andrews brought a good
deal of natural ability to the ring and with only one
loss by knock out during a twelve-year career, Andrews was
undoubtedly pretty tough with it. An aggressive fighter and
a big, big puncher with power in both hands Harry put many
an opponent on the canvas, but he could also be evasive and
box in a classical, upright manner with a good defence that
led many a stronger man to come unstuck against him. Those
gifts made him a very popular fighter and for years after his
career ended he would be warmly greeted everywhere he went
in a sign of the affection held for him by the fans. Having won
the Hampshire title at welterweight Andrews also enjoyed a
decent measure of championship success. When you remember
that in 1910 when Harry turned pro there were more than ten
times the number of active boxers nationally than there are
15
POMPEY’S BOXING PAST
today, that achievement is far more laudable than it may appear
one hundred years later with the competition proportionally
slimmer.
Christened George Thomas and raised as a child at 28
Stamshaw Avenue, Andrews came up during a period when the
Royal Navy was a huge presence in Portsmouth, and as a pro the
majority of his opponents were serving under the white ensign
or in the army, and it is fair to say that aside from the armed
forces commitment to the sport, the city was to some extent in
the doldrums when it came to professional boxing at that time.
In the years 1910 to 1920 there were approximately twentyseven professionals from the city and Gosport, but between
1920 and 1930 there were seventy-one boxers active at one time
or another. Consequently Andrews never really got the chance
to fight at a high level or to face the kind of opponent that really
defines a fighter’s career, but even with that disadvantage he
became a superb technician in the ring and as a boxer with a
big punch a very popular crowd-pleaser indeed.
Harry may never have had the opportunity to turn
professional at all if it hadn’t been for the efforts of Portsmouth
promoter W.F. Manser who worked tirelessly to revive boxing
in the city. Manser promoted exclusively at the Engineers’
Drill Hall in Hampshire Terrace, now home of the University
of Portsmouth’s music department, and by running a series
of tournaments at the venue Manser ensured that many an
aspiring boxer got the opportunity to show what they could
do. Eight of Andrews’ first ten bouts took place at the venue,
and it was invaluable public exposure for the seventeen-yearold featherweight who made his debut with a fifth-round
retirement win in October 1910 over Hartlepool’s J. West, who
absorbed a great deal of punishment before being saved by the
referee. Three weeks later Andrews took part in a featherweight
tournament and won with three successive six-rounders in
one night, beating the navy’s Stoker Sivers in a nail-bitingly
16
Harry Andrews: The Stamshaw Slam
close final that was only settled in Andrews’ favour after the
referee obliged them to fight one more round. Not only was the
competition win a great result for Andrews who was of course
a novice just starting out at the time, but it also shows just how
supremely fit so many fighters of the era actually were.
In January 1911 Harry took part in a second featherweight
tournament, this time conducted over two evenings. An
emphatic third-round knockout of the army’s Private Dine
placed Harry in the semi-final where he won a points decision
over the navy’s Seaman Slimey after a real back and forth battle,
before winning the final with a decision victory against Seaman
Wells who was giving away a few pounds in weight to Harry. It
was another great result for the Stamshaw man, and with the
bout against Slimey so well received they were immediately
matched for a return in May 1911. Fighting at Portsmouth
Boxing Club Harry swarmed all over Slimey from the first bell,
but his eagerness caused him to lose a degree of composure as
he pressed for the knockout. The naval man coolly covered
up and countered, making it to the final bell despite losing
a wide decision. It was an eye-catching tussle though, and
Harry’s reputation as an exciting fighter was beginning to get
established.
By now living in Twyford Avenue, Stamshaw, Harry had
begun courting Ellen whom he would marry the following year,
but at some point in June 1911 he suffered his first loss as a pro.
Details of the fight and opponent remain obscure although
newspaper reports of his next bout in July against Bombardier
Brierley make reference to it, but we can be certain it hadn’t
damaged Harry’s confidence too much as he gave a tigerish
display to force Brierley to retire at the end of the first round,
despite Andrews being outweighed by almost thirteen pounds.
Such a result given the large weight disparity between the two
reveals much about Harry’s power. Punching hard has less to do
with a boxer’s physical size or strength and is instead a product
17
POMPEY’S BOXING PAST
of timing and leverage, and it would seem Harry was capable
of punching well in excess of his weight. That’s a very coveted
attribute for a boxer and one that can’t really be taught, which
is why it’s often said that the true punchers are born and not
made. Andrews certainly belongs in this category and in terms
of the best punchers from Portsmouth, Andrews is right up
there along with Harry Vine of the 1930s and Mickey Driscoll
of the 1990s. He could really hit, and Brierley felt every one of
those punches in a furious three minutes during which Harry
punched the ambition out of him.
In August Harry made his first outing at lightweight and
took a ten-round points decision over Seaman Baverstock of
HMS Albemarle, the fight taking place at the Engineers’ Drill
Hall. Baverstock was stylistically unrefined, doing little more
than marching forwards with right-hand swings, which Harry
easily came under to land with his own shots. Few boxing
careers proceed without some controversy along the way, and
Harry was about to experience his when he met Wheeler Holt
of the Army Service Corps in a fight that would end with a
second loss on his record. Holt was a come-forward fighter
with a reputation as a banger, a reputation that Harry to his
cost was to find quite justified. For the first few rounds Harry
evaded the larger man’s rushes and countering well he built up
a strong lead, winning all three completed rounds until he got
tagged by a heavy right cross in the fourth. Groggy but still
on his feet, Andrews looked to be recovering when one of his
cornermen who clearly overestimated the damage to his man
foolishly entered the ring, obliging the referee to disqualify
Andrews in accordance with the rules. It is unlikely Andrews’
dressing room was a happy one after that fight, but it wouldn’t
be the last time Andrews ran into Holt.
A fine fourth-round knockout of Seaman Tipper in January
1913 put Andrews back on track, and in March he took a sixround points decision over Southampton’s favoured Harry
18
Harry Andrews: The Stamshaw Slam
Bresland, the fight taking place in front of Bresland’s home
crowd at the Pelican Hall. Harry proved a hit with the Pelican
Hall crowd and his next nine fights in succession would take
place at the venue. A week after the win over Bresland he was
back with a six-round points win over the army’s Private Evans
in a close contest that the crowd warmly applauded, before
being held to a six-round draw by Southampton’s Danny
Hughes three weeks later. Hughes was a clever, tricky boxer and
it was only Andrews’ persistence and forcing of the action that
saved him from a loss. A fortnight later Harry had a rematch
with Wheeler Holt, but on a bad night for the Portsmouth man
he took too many punches as he waded forward and his corner
pulled him out at the end of the fourth round. It was one of
those fights where Andrews neglected his boxing ability and
let his hot-headedness get the better of him, boring in when he
would have been better served standing off and working behind
his jab to create the openings for his right cross, and he never
did avenge the losses to Holt.
In the next six months Harry put together four wins,
including a six-round bludgeoning of Oldham’s Ted Evans
and a first-round stoppage of Chatham’s Seaman Grant who
unfortunately fractured his thumb during the action and was
unable to continue. In a display of heavy hitting at the Pelican
Southampton’s Harry Croucher was floored by Harry’s right
hand in the sixth and final round and was lucky to survive to
the bell before Harry took the decision. Life was also proving
eventful away from the ring as Harry and his wife had their first
daughter, also called Ellen, in September 1913 and in the same
year he jointly opened the Hyde Park Gymnasium in Hyde Park
Road, Southsea, with business partner Ben Clark. It would be
the training headquarters for the remainder of his boxing career,
but with a growing family to provide for Harry also worked as
a Naafi manager in the naval base. It was a position he held
for many years, even during his own conscription into the navy
19
POMPEY’S BOXING PAST
when war was declared in 1914. Harry certainly couldn’t have
had much spare time on his hands but he maintained his devotion
to boxing, and remained undeterred by a ten-round decision loss
to Southampton’s Gunner Brown in October 1913. Now at his
peak as a fighter, the loss to Brown would be Harry’s last reversal
until August 1917, although he wouldn’t be able to box at all in
1915 as the war years fatally transformed the nation.
With the outbreak of WW1 and the conscription into the
armed services of so many men, boxing promotions nationally
became fewer as the number of available competitors dwindled,
but Harry was able to compile four wins in 1914 including
a terrific victory over Plymouth’s Tommy Hancock who
succumbed to his Portsmouth rival’s power in the fifth round of
a one-sided contest. Two days later Fareham’s Sapper Robinson
lasted just one round more than Hancock before being rescued
by his corner, and two weeks after that Liverpool’s Pat Sheridan
was thrown out by the referee for persistent holding. Back at
the Pelican in March Harry took on old foe Harry Croucher
again, but this time with the welterweight championship
of Hampshire at stake he was nothing short of relentless as
Croucher sustained a cold-blooded battering. Croucher was
floored time after time until eventually the referee intervened
in the sixth round as he was being pummelled from pillar to
post. Today, the fight wouldn’t have been permitted to proceed
beyond the first two or possibly three rounds, and Harry never
gave a singularly more ruthless performance than he did on this
night and after five years as a professional, Harry was a proud
champion.
As the war took over every aspect of people’s lives Harry
didn’t fight again until June 1916 but he returned with a tenround points win over the army’s Private Gillett, the fight
taking place on a rainy open-air show at Fratton Park in front
of a sparse crowd. At the Connaught Drill Hall in August Harry
narrowly beat Corporal Zimmer, a fine boxer and former army
20
Harry Andrews: The Stamshaw Slam
welterweight champion from the First Hampshire Regiment.
The ten-round decision for Harry wasn’t warmly received by
the crowd and it could be argued that the draw would have been
a better outcome, and it was inevitable they would face each
other again to settle matters.
It is said that a championship gives a boxer something
extra and he is noticeably better because of it. If so Harry
certainly underlined the theory when he boxed the navy’s
Stoker Churchill at Portsmouth’s Wonderland hall in October
1916. Churchill may have been taller and the naturally bigger
man, but that didn’t prevent Harry hammering him to the
canvas five times in the first round alone. Churchill bravely
rallied in the second, but out on his feet, cut above the eyes
and virtually defenceless by the third he was saved from further
damage by the referee. Small wonder then that Andrews was
considered one of the big hitters at his weight. Just one week
after Harry’s blasting of Stoker Churchill he faced artilleryman
Gunner Walker of the Rhondda Valley in a top of the bill match
at Wonderland, and the two men produced one of the most
fiercely contested battles seen in a Pompey ring for many years.
Like Harry, Walker was an accomplished boxer who also
liked to mix it and the two men didn’t so much box in the ring
that night as collide. As usual Harry started fast and began
landing some hurtful hooks on the inside, but Walker soaked
them up and in the second began to dish it out himself, and
while Harry did have him in trouble towards the end of the
three minutes he couldn’t quite manage to put Walker away.
Showing his first-class conditioning the Welshman emerged for
the third with vigour and started to really put it on Andrews,
beating him to the punch and repeatedly landing to body
and head. Harry continued to have some success with those
hooks to the body but he was made to pay a price each time.
The pattern continued for the next three rounds with first
one man on top before the other would exert control. It was
21
POMPEY’S BOXING PAST
noticeable that at range Walker had the advantage but Harry
fought furiously to close the distance and prevent his opponent
from creating the space to work, but for the entire ten rounds
neither man let up for a second. The draw was the correct result
with the fans in attendance the true winners as they witnessed
the kind of contest that represents all that is so exciting about
boxing. Equally true however is that the fight against Walker
marked a subtle turning point, and the beginning of a gradual
but inevitable erosion of Harry’s skills. Slowly but surely over
the coming years he would begin to lose as many fights as he
won, but there were still some good performances left in the
twenty-four-year-old yet.
Harry didn’t have much of a rest after the rousing fight
against Walker and was back in the same ring just twentyfour hours later. The night was more of an exhibition really as
Wednesbury’s Bert Burrows of the Royal Flying Corps boxed
four rounds in succession with Seaman King, Stoker Churchill
and finally Harry. King and Churchill lost, but Harry got the
draw after his four rounds although he must to some extent
have been affected by his exertions of the night before against
Walker. In May 1917 Harry scored a ten-round decision over
Bethnal Green’s Ted Stanley at The Dell, and in the process
became the only fighter to have boxed at the football grounds
of both Portsmouth and bitter rivals Southampton. Back at The
Dell in August Harry had a rematch with Corporal Zimmer
and narrowly lost a close fifteen-round decision along with
his Hampshire title. A third match between the two was a
natural, and after Harry beat both Ted Bull and the army’s
Sergeant Brewer on the same night at The Ring in Blackfriars
he met Zimmer for the decider in December at Southampton’s
Empire Theatre, again with the Hampshire title at stake. By this
stage Harry wasn’t the same fighter he’d been just a year ago,
and trailing on points he was disqualified in the final round
for persistent holding. Harry no longer had the engine that
22
Harry Andrews: The Stamshaw Slam
had once powered him to some great wins and he would slip
a little more in each match as he continued to box, sometimes
winning, sometimes losing, for Harry still drew the fans and
any promoter would be happy to have him on a show. Time
itself is always the greatest foe however, and while it’s true that
the last thing a fighter loses is his punch there are few sadder
spectacles in boxing than watching a once vigorous fighter
growing old.
Harry would continue to box until January 1922 by which
time he was past his best, but as many an ex-fighter will tell
you it can be almost impossibly hard to walk away from the
adulation and highs of boxing, and finding an alternative for
that allure is often a fruitless task. In those last years he would
win eight, lose six and draw one including his only knockout
loss to Portsmouth’s Tommy Waldron at the Portsea Sports &
Social Club in Queen Street on 21 December 1921 where he
sank to the canvas and was counted out in the fourth round.
In January 1922 Harry bowed out for good with a final points
loss to Waldron, and while he continued to train youngsters
in his gym in Hyde Park Road he never laced up gloves as a
professional again.
Harry finished his working life at the Danish Bacon
Company in Fratton and he was to pass away in 1959 at the
age of sixty-six. While Harry’s marriage to Ellen ended in the
1920s, he is survived by his grandson Francis who takes much
pride in the achievements of the fighting grandfather he never
met, a man who won the Hampshire championship and became
one of Portsmouth’s best punchers from the last one hundred
years.
During a wonderful career in which he became a star in
his own city Harry was to prove an inspiration for numerous
boxers that came after him, all eager to match his success not
only in championship terms, but also in the love of the fans and
it is poignant to think that on that very same show in which
23
POMPEY’S BOXING PAST
Harry was knocked out for the first and only time by Waldron
to effectively end his fighting days, at the very bottom of the bill
and largely unnoticed by the capacity crowd there also boxed a
raw seventeen-year-old lad who lost in two inauspicious rounds
to Bert Benham. Yet in just a few short years that unknown
teenager would go on to not only become a household name
in Pompey in the same way Harry had, but would also earn
the accolade of the island city’s greatest boxer ever, for that
youngster was none other than Billy Streets. The baton that
Harry had carried so proudly since 1910 was invisibly passed
to the next generation on that freezing December night in
Portsea, and a fine lineage it has proved to be.
24