bby Ron Jackson

I have just returned from a visit to England and while there I attended the monthly meeting of the Brighton Ex-Boxers held at the The Nevill Pub in Hove.

All the members including the Chairman Ernie Price and one of the Vice Presidents Barry Noonan gave me a warm welcome and made me get up and give a talk on my recently published book Champions – An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of SA Boxing.

Amongst the many ex-fighters and officials I met at the meeting were former world middleweight champion Alan Minter and former British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion Scott Welch.

I was also introduced to Matt Christie the editor of the weekly Boxing News magazine, the oldest and longest running boxing magazine.

Amongst other members present was Roy Davis former trainer of Chris Eubank who is now training Chris Jnr the current IBO super-middleweight champion.

Rosemary Ellmore the cousin of Terry Spinks MBE, the Olympic gold medallist and former British featherweight champion, presented me with the updated version of his book Life was a Roller-Coaster written by Bob Lonkhurst.

While on my travels in the United Kingdom I also met up with Nick Collis the former Supersport presenter and commentator.

Nick lives in the small village of Woburn near Woburn Abbey and is happy pursuing his music and television advertising career.