Boxing, Rock Concerts, Etc I Joined the Lads' Club When I Was 14 in 1944
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1 If you pay me, you'll tell me when to come and go. As it is, I can run it the way I want to run it." 9. Norwich Lads’ Club – Boxing, Rock concerts, etc Originally you had to be 14 to join but as the years went on it came down to I joined the Lads’ Club when I was 14 in 10. You could box at 11. I boxed for 1944 just to play sports like table Norfolk, I got to that stage, but I was a tennis and football but after a year I got good coach and I trained a lot of boys introduced to the boxing section and up to really top standard. I would say boxed for the Lads’ Club until the that in the 80s we had one of the best 1950s. The club had been bombed teams in the eastern counties, we and we were more or less in the travelled all over England, and boxed basement until it was rebuilt in 1951. I for England in international matches. rejoined as a coach and ran the boxing We were known and respected section until the 1990s. I was also on everywhere. To succeed at boxing, at the committee for many years. whatever level, you have to be Financially, it was hard work because self-controlled. You get the street apart from the boxing section there was bullies, they're never going to make nothing else in the club to make boxers. There's a lot of discipline in money, it was all by donations. The boxing. They would start from about 7 place was costing about £1,000 a week stone and upwards, as big as you like. to run, and that was hard money to We had a lot of little lads. You never felt find. uncomfortable with the big chaps - they were the most docile! We'd have had There's an etiquette in the ring in 30 or 40 boys in there, we were open boxing, but not rules like rugby and so every night of the week, different on. The coaches were teaching it from trainers would take turns to take the day one. The regime was quite strict boys to London or Nottingham, or down there. If you went down there to wherever. box, you trained hard and if you didn't, you didn't box. We probably had six And quite often, you box people, you coaches for boxing, good people who stay friends for life. You see them on had come through the ranks. The the telly, swearing at each other and all London clubs paid for their trainers but that, well that's all a front. round here everything was voluntary.The managers, like John People are different now. We were Holder and Ronnie Brooks, they were qualified coaches and we were strict paid. Beyond that, if you went to with the boys. They came in, they all another club all you would get was a had to be in on time and they always few pounds for petrol. John Holder did came and said goodbye to the trainer offer to put me on the payroll but I said, before leaving. If you didn't do what the "No John, I do this job because I like it. trainer said, home you went. We didn't Transcription of interviews for King Street Community Voices project 2010 - 12. Edited by Richard Matthew 2018. Copies of the audio recordings are held by Norfolk Record Office. 2 have time for people messing about. which only boxes in that group. Other sports, you can "have a go", can't Ron Springall you - but don't have a go at boxing unless you are doing it properly. Nowadays the Lads’ Club, the name, is run from the Hewett School, with a The parents knew the boys were looked boxing club and so on. People came after. That was a sport, if you were a bit from all over the country to the Lads’ wayward, that taught you discipline and Club, it was probably one of the best you were fit, you lived for it, you didn't gyms anywhere, and the facilities, with have to prove anything to anybody. If the tiered seating and so on, there they got in trouble outside, one of the wasn't a better place in the country to trainers would tell them off as well. box. We'd have 600-700 boxing fans There was a tremendous amount of crammed in there on a Saturday night. boys who might have got in trouble with Even now we go to shows and there are the law, but your time was taken up people with their teenage sons there, with the boxing and you had to be people in their 70s and 80s, you all dedicated and didn't have time to mess meet and that's lovely. about outside. There was never any trouble when we all went out together. There were no radios and so on in the We had to have paramedics but all the gym when you were training, and no time we were down there, nobody was girls boxing. The only place they had ever badly hurt. You can get injured - music was upstairs, for the roller knocked out, even - in any sport. But skating. They played snooker in another from the trainer's point of view it's part; there was a band practice room paramount that you put the right and the five-a-side football. There was a person with the right person. You would gymnastics team but that disappeared never let one of your own lads get hurt. in the Fifties. Of course, the King George Memorial Hall next door to the Lads’ Club was It's strange, you're in there and you're used by the St. John Ambulance for out to win the fight, but you'll come out their training, so if there had been an and have a drink afterwards. accident, they were on hand. The club just sort of petered out. The We'd take boys out a lot, some of these ABA - Amateur Boxing Association - shows would be in big hotels in London, have all the records. I think it should the Grosvenor, Barbican Centre and so have been kept open, as a museum to on, and it was a good start in life. One the city. From the turn of the century of the lads, I gave him an right through to the 1990s, there were apprenticeship and taught him a trade; hundreds and hundreds of boys it he still comes to see me. The age limit helped out. It kept them out of trouble. for amateur boxers has been altered; it Originally, boys who got into trouble had was 35, dropped to 34, and now there to go down there for the police part of is a separate group from 34 to 40 it, but after that, there were so many Transcription of interviews for King Street Community Voices project 2010 - 12. Edited by Richard Matthew 2018. Copies of the audio recordings are held by Norfolk Record Office. 3 people it benefited. Whereas now, It was a happy atmosphere and well there's nothing like it. If you took some run. It made for a good community of those boys who are in trouble feeling, because there were boys you nowadays, and put them in there, knew from school and they would keep they'd soon sort them out. You could coming after they had started work. travel anywhere in England, talk to the Three or four of us volunteered to paint boxing fraternity, everyone knew the the club and we were treated to a Lads’ Club. slap-up meal at the Lansdowne Hotel Andy Springall on Yarmouth Road. Apart from youth clubs, you did not have a lot to do at It was the first Lads’ Club in England. that time, unlike today. It's a shame Several people copied the idea, but today that there are not so many youth that was the most famous. The guys clubs. I didn't try the boxing although I who are commentating on TV now remember Ginger Sadd, every time he boxed at the Lads’ Club - Nicky Piper, saw you he would ask if you would like Nigel Benn - and we'd have famous to have a go. boxers like Don Cockell as guests of Denis McGee honour. Herbie Hide, he was World Champion, John Thaxton; boxers like The first pop concert I remember at the Stevie Sadd were known all over Lads’ Club around 1970-71 was going England. And the camaraderie remains. with my older brothers to see Yes, with Good days; I'd love to turn the clock Groundhogs and Dada as support, back. which consisted of Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer. They had big bands - I was introduced to the Lads’ Club by a Derek and the Dominoes, the Who, friend, John King, when I was just under Traffic, Pink Floyd. It was standing only, 12 years old. From Monday to Friday really crowded, a rather cold concrete evenings, most of the boys would be at floor. Prices were comparatively cheap, the Lads Club. I think we paid about 3d compared with today's gigs at Carrow or 6d to come in. It was a massive Road. building. We had a big room at the Ian Millins top, with seats down one side and stage at the far end, with room enough I believe it was the first boys club in the to have an indoor football pitch for country and I know the chief constable five-a-side.