1. 60 Friday, July 29, 2011 Follow us on Twitter @NewsSouthHams, or visit www.southhams-today.co.ukKBG/DTC
Small picture by Greg Taylor – buy it at www.buypicture.net Greg Taylor 22074869. Other picture contributed
Top picture, Bill Burgoyne fighting Charles Bellingham of Totnes
Boxing Club in 1950. He won this bout on points. And above, last Friday
Pugilists past and present
meet for a friendly bout
South Hams Newspapers’ sports editor Euan Reedie was the referee for
the confrontation between Bill Burgoyne, 90, and 24-year-old Ed Hall
BOXING
MUHAMMAD Ali v
Joe Frazier; Marvellous
Marvin Hagler v Sugar
Ray Leonard; Chris
Eubank v Nigel Benn;
and...er...Rocky Balboa
v that bloke who
played B.A in the A-
Team.
Boxing has thrown
up a whole host of
intriguing match-ups
over the years, but
none have been quite
so unlikely as that
between Ed Hall, 24,
and 90-year-old Bill
Burgoyne in Kings-
bridge last Friday.
Thankfully, due to
the massive chasm in
age and obvious dis-
parity in weight classes
– the younger man is a
cruiserweight, while
the veteran fought at
middleweight – fists
were not flying betw-
een Hall and Burgoyne
and there was no trash
talk or reciprocal hat-
red in evidence.
Instead, both were
firmly together in the
corner of the blue hue,
Kingsbridge’s sporting
colour, in a thoroughly
convivial get-together.
Friendship was kin-
dled, mutual praise
was proffered and rec-
ollections of Kings-
bridge’s proud pugi-
lism past and potential
future were enthusiasti-
cally discussed at a
meeting arranged by
South Hams News-
papers.
As reported last
month, Hall won his
first-ever bout recently
for Saltash Amateur
Boxing Club and is beli-
eved to be the only
boxer in the town.
While understand-
ably ecstatic about his
success, Hall had one
slight regret – that he
had not actually been
flying the flag for his
hometown.
The Kingsbridge
Amateur Boxing Club
folded in 1974 but the
man who founded it in
1948, Burgoyne, con-
tacted South Hams
Newspapers after read-
ing with interest Hall’s
exploits. The sprightly
nonagenarian told us
he was eager to speak
to Kingsbridge’s new
king of the ring – and
we were only too hap-
py to arrange for the
pair to meet at Burg-
oyne’s idyllically situat-
ed Warren Road home.
Burgoyne said: ‘Sin-
ce meeting this young
man, it looks like he
can go on and give it a
real go in boxing. It
brought back many
happy memories of the
past when I read about
his win.
‘After all, it’s been
umpteen years since
boxing has been cov-
ered in the paper after
the club closed down.’
Hall added: ‘It’s
been great to meet Bill
by EUAN
REEDIE
Small picture by Greg Taylor – buy it at www.buypicture.net Greg
Taylor 22074869. Buy other picture at buypicture.net Nic Randall 15060018
Top picture, Ed Hall sparring last
month and above, last Friday