Boxer Boxer The Life of a Rugby Great Mike Gardner The authorised biography of Arnold ‘Boxer’ Walker Scrum-half: Kells, Workington Town, Whitehaven, Cumbria, England and Great Britain YOUCAXTON PUBLICATIONS OXFORD & SHREWSBURY ISBN 978-1-911175-58-2 Cover design: Jolly Good Design, Cheltenham Marketing: Mike and Lesley Gardner. Page design: YouCaxton Publications [email protected] Copyright: Most of the photographs are copyrighted to CN Group Newspapers Ltd. Other agencies and photographers who have given permission to reproduce pictures include Deb Townsend, Gerard Richardson MBE, Widnes RL Museum, Robert E. Gate, Harry Edgar and Kells Amateur Rugby League Club. Some of the older pictures depicting Whitehaven have been kindly loaned, courtesy of Decades, the Whitehaven photographic book, published by Gerard Richardson and Ivor Nicholas. Many of the pictures come from private collections and it has been impossible to trace the copyright owners. If copyright has been accidentally breached, please contact the author This book is dedicated to my brother-in-law Les, who did so much to make me the player I was and the person I am. Arnold ‘Boxer’ Walker Arnold ‘Boxer’ Walker played 274 professional games for Workington Town, Whitehaven, Cumbria, England and Great Britain. He skippered Cumbria to two county championships and a rare 9-3 win over New Zealand in 1980. In the background is his great friend Ralph Calvin. VI Contents Foreword ix Introduction xv CHAPTER 1 A Star Is Born 1 CHAPTER 2 Leets and Sheep’s Trotters 9 CHAPTER 3 Growing Up with Billy 15 CHAPTER 4 French Connection 37 CHAPTER 5 Local Hero 43 CHAPTER 6 e Godfather 51 CHAPTER 7 I’m Not Good Enough 59 CHAPTER 8 George Best 63 CHAPTER 9 ere Are No Helmets, Marra 85 CHAPTER 10 Boardroom Backhanders 99 CHAPTER 11 Talk of the Town 105 CHAPTER 12 What Went on in Benidorm 113 CHAPTER 13 Sol: My Guiding Light 123 CHAPTER 14 ey’ve Sold All My Mates 145 CHAPTER 15 I’m in Haven 155 CHAPTER 16 Sacked on a Garage Forecourt 163 CHAPTER 17 Upset Tommy 175 CHAPTER 18 Band of Brothers 181 CHAPTER 19 e Adams Family 207 CHAPTER 20 Is He Dead? 217 CHAPTER 21 e Surgeon Who Saved My Life 229 CHAPTER 22 Back from the Dead 235 CHAPTER 23 Boxer Shorts 257 CHAPTER 24 My Team of Stars to Take on the World 275 CHAPTER 25 e Legendary Spanky Mcfarlane 287 CHAPTER 26 Howard’s Way 297 CHAPTER 27 My Brother, Boxer 305 Acknowledgements 309 Appendix: Boxer Walker’s Playing Career 313 VII Paul Charlton, who scored 227 career tries as a world-class full back for Workington Town, Salford, Blackpool, Cumbria, England and Great Britain. ‘If Boxer was playing in the Super League today, he would be the best scrum half in Great Britain and one of the best in the world,’ says Paul. VIII Foreword By Paul Charlton Full Back – Workington Town, Salford, Blackpool Borough, Cumberland, England and Great Britain am honoured to say a few words about my special friend Boxer Walker – what a player and what a man. I want to start by telling I you a story about the only time I was sent off in my career – and remember, I played more than 700 games in 20 years. I was playing for Workington Town at Widnes and the story involves their hooker, Keith Elwell, who had played for England. I remember it quite clearly - it happened on the halfway line. Boxer had the ball and he ended up getting elbowed from the side by Elwell. He just cleaned Boxer out - he levelled him. Boxer was on the floor and I had seen everything. I just flew in and belted Elwell - I was just going to hit him again and I could feel this big arm on my shoulder. I looked around and it was Big Jim Mills and he was saying: “Paul, don’t do it,” in his Welsh voice, I think the referee was Peter Geraghty. We had a bit of a scuffle on the floor and the referee came in and said: “Come here, Paul. You’re off.” Boxer has always been a special mate. I know he would have done the same for me. He would have backed me up. We have known each other for a long time. He was a fantastic player and he would admit himself that he could be a nasty player. He was a cocky little bugger. Yet, he is very humble about what he has achieved in the game. We go way back to when I was playing full back for Kells. I remember well, Boxer’s father Duncan, he was just like Boxer, a character but a good man. Duncan did a lot for Kells, alongside Jim and Madge Kitchin. They were at every game. Boxer was on the football field one day - I think he was around 10-years-old – and I was practising kicking goals, although I was never very good at it. IX BOXER He would run and pick the balls up for me and I would say to him: ‘Get behind the sticks, little fella.’ That is how I first got to know him. And then he started coming through the ranks as a Kells player. I had been transferred to Salford when Boxer signed for Town and we played against each other a few times early in his career. I remember thinking right away to myself: ‘This kid’s got something. He looked the part and he wasn’t out of place.’ I was at my prime then. It was obvious that he could be a bit of a terrier in those games and though his football skills had to develop, I knew he had great potential and I wasn’t surprised when Boxer went on to achieve great things. I knew he would - you could see it, even at that age. Mind you, the international selectors weren’t fair to Boxer. He was so good he should have played a lot more times for Great Britain and he would definitely have done a great job for the side. That was a shock, him not getting picked more, and it has always been a disappointment to me. When I came back to Workington, Boxer was the lynchpin of the team. He would stick his nose into anybody’s business and just get on with the job. Any team in the league would have loved to have had Boxer in their side. He always gave 100 per cent and would never take a backward step. He was very, very skilful. And what a defensive player. He just had a special knack of knocking down those big men. He just seemed to grab hold of a shirt and a shoulder. Looking back, I still can’t figure out how he did it. He had his own way and it worked every time. A few times I thought a player had got past Boxer but then he seemed to always end up on the ground. No one ever got past him, no matter how big they were. And another thing that made him so important to Town was the fact that Boxer hardly ever missed a game, he was never injured. He was such a good player that he could play off the cuff – no one knew what he was going to do. Yet he always played for the team and if I called a set play he would follow everything perfectly, if that was what I had wanted. He was easy to play with. I remember he had a great sidestep and off either foot so he was really good at making breaks. And in that great Town team we had plenty of speed outside, we had a lot of guys with lots of pace to finish his break off, like Ian Wright, who was a cracking player and very quick. They would all follow Boxer knowing X FOREWORD they would get the ball at just the right time. He never let me down, never, not once. He would play until he dropped and he often played with an injury, that’s just the sort of guy he was and that’s one of the big things he brought to Workington Town, that great team spirit we always had and he was a central part of that. Before a match, Boxer was always very jovial - until around 20 minutes before the kick-off and then, all of a sudden, he would change and put his game head on. Not every player can do that. Some of the lads could worry for a week before the game but guys like Arnold would go out the night before and turn up and give you a good game. Boxer was a very consistent scrum-half. I don’t think I can ever remember him having a bad game. He was a very steady player and as a coach that’s what you always want. When I came back to Town from Salford as player-coach, Eddie Bowman and Les Gorley, two of the club’s senior players, came to me and told me that they had a very important message for me from the entire team. They said they were representing all the players and that everyone wanted me to know that they were all happy that I was there and everyone was going to play their guts out for me. Later that year we won the Lancashire Cup for the first time. Some of the Super League teams from today wouldn’t have lived with that Town side.