Terry Spinks

[jukel123 9,041]

I love to read about the lives of the boxers I grew up watching on the box.

A favourite of myself and my brothers was Terry Spinks a featherweight gold medalist.

Here he is after winning his medal. I like this photo because it reminds me what a community sport boxing used to be when I was a kid.

There's another, decades later when he was awarded the MBE.

The third one you might want to hide from your Mrs. I don't know who won the fight. But Terry was definitely second best in the wedding tackle department.

[iworkwhippets 12,860]

Now then chaps, it's come to my attention, that far to many of you are starting silly topics in order to get attention, now it needs to stop, or I'm off ,   i mean take a butchers of my topics , all sensible, now heres a nice sensible topics from.me,, Sainsbury's have completely sold out of cinnamon buns,  eh 

[jukel123 9,041]

1 hour ago, iworkwhippets said:

Now then chaps, it's come to my attention, that far to many of you are starting silly topics in order to get attention, now it needs to stop, or I'm off ,   i mean take a butchers of my topics , all sensible, now heres a nice sensible topics from.me,, Sainsbury's have completely sold out of cinnamon buns,  eh 

How's the love life? Go gentle on the first date mate. Remember you've got to kiss 'em first.

I'm sorry my posts bore you. Would it help if I wrote about my frying pans, operations and geriatric lust Keith ? Lol

Edited March 24 by jukel123

[mel b 3,013]

2 hours ago, jukel123 said:

How's the love life? Go gentle on the first date mate. Remember you've got to kiss 'em first.

I'm sorry my posts bore you. Would it help if I wrote about my frying pans, operations and geriatric lust Keith ? Lol

Try a pic of your arse , he likes arse pics .

[gnasher16 30,592]

At a time when you was more famous/infamous in Canning Town/West Ham if you was a criminal than a sportsmen guys like Terry Spinks and Bobby Moore were idolised for their sporting purity,their honesty and role model qualities.....Spinks,Ronnie Redrup,Ralph Charles they made West Ham Abc one of the most elite boxing clubs in the country,bigger than Repton at that time and it brought a lot of adoration locally as amateur sport and pro sport had a similar following their wasnt such a gap in popularity as there is today.......they was all before my time but the one i always admired from our manor was Billy Walker,partly because he was a heavyweight but also he was a big good looking lad as his " Golden Boy " nickname suggests,the ladies liked him and he had some character about him.....him and his brother George started the old Billys Baked Potatos chain which seems pathetic now but was a big deal back then 

Good for you Jukel looking up such old names ive a load of old photos here the ol fella gave me years ago,the one in their underpants well that was at a time before a fighters modesty would be covered by towels if they had to strip right off for a weigh in theres one here where Terry is shaking hands with his opponent for the media pictures with his little todger brazenly on display for all to see its a funny picture when you compare to todays weigh in pictures 

[jukel123 9,041]

11 hours ago, gnasher16 said:

At a time when you was more famous/infamous in Canning Town/West Ham if you was a criminal than a sportsmen guys like Terry Spinks and Bobby Moore were idolised for their sporting purity,their honesty and role model qualities.....Spinks,Ronnie Redrup,Ralph Charles they made West Ham Abc one of the most elite boxing clubs in the country,bigger than Repton at that time and it brought a lot of adoration locally as amateur sport and pro sport had a similar following their wasnt such a gap in popularity as there is today.......they was all before my time but the one i always admired from our manor was Billy Walker,partly because he was a heavyweight but also he was a big good looking lad as his " Golden Boy " nickname suggests,the ladies liked him and he had some character about him.....him and his brother George started the old Billys Baked Potatos chain which seems pathetic now but was a big deal back then 

Good for you Jukel looking up such old names ive a load of old photos here the ol fella gave me years ago,the one in their underpants well that was at a time before a fighters modesty would be covered by towels if they had to strip right off for a weigh in theres one here where Terry is shaking hands with his opponent for the media pictures with his little todger brazenly on display for all to see its a funny picture when you compare to todays weigh in pictures 

I vaguely  remember Ralph Charles. But Billy Walker was a big name. He advertised Vitalis hair lotion back in the day.  It was a non greasy alternative to Brylcreem. He was  always game and gave good value in the ring but didn't have much of a defence if I remember correctly.He seemed to appeal to people and became quite a media star  because of his looks. He beat some big names but was beaten by some pretty ordinary guys too. Henry used to advertise after shave and "splash it all,over" and Billy would comb the Vitalis through his golden locks. I used to buy both products, I guess I respected them and subconsciously  wanted to be like them. Advertising works!

You can spend many an hour looking at the old rivalries and fights on YouTube and reading Wiki about how life treated the boxers after retirement. 

One thing which has always struck me is that elite boxers need tremendous resolve, psychological strength and self discipline but are also very fragile mentally and can end up in really sorry states. Terry Spinks is an example, he became a heavy drinker and was living like a tramp before a relative took him in.

Many people complain that youngsters don't have any positive role models .  One good source of role models is the boxing world, who better than Henry Cooper? We all  really looked up to him. Not just because of his ability in the ring but just the way he conducted himself outside of the ring. But  there's very  little free _to _watch boxing on the telly nowadays. The heavyweight championship of the UK belt has become devalued as a result. So if Cooper was around today, kids would hardly be exposed to him. It's a shame.

Edited March 27 by jukel123

[gnasher16 30,592]

I dont have the stats so its only my opinion but money will play a huge part in the post career mental state of sportsmen.....for example fighters who have selfishly dedicated their early lives to boxing but also started a family,retire from boxing usually in their early 30's then have to go and get a job,the money just wasnt there to sail off into the sunset like they can today look how many fighters have taken pubs Terry Spinks being one....off the top of my head Alan Rudkin,Bruce Woodcock,esteemed footballers like Bobby Moore,Terry Venables all took pubs as they still had to feed their families.....loads of them,Charlie Magri had a sports shop then went back on the bins at one point,ended up taking the Victoria pub in Mile End...he was an ex world champion !......Dennis Andries still is a security guard in central London....its a mentally difficult transition post career that a lot struggle with.

Todays ex sportsmen have different types of mental issues addiction,gambling etc where they literally have too much money rather than not enough.

Edited March 27 by gnasher16

[jukel123 9,041]

Investing in a pub with no business plan of background is a quick way to go become bankrupt. In a high crime area it is sheer madness.

I can literally name 6 pubs in Salford where I was born and grew up which have been burnt out by 'protection' gangs. Didn't that happen to your compatriot John L Gardner?

Pubs are poor investments these days except for the odd one or two.

 

[WILF 48,236]

2 hours ago, jukel123 said:

Investing in a pub with no business plan of background is a quick way to go become bankrupt. In a high crime area it is sheer madness.

I can literally name 6 pubs in Salford where I was born and grew up which have been burnt out by 'protection' gangs. Didn't that happen to your compatriot John L Gardner?

Pubs are poor investments these days except for the odd one or two.

 

There’s f**k all money in pubs unless there is a good food to go with it…..food is where all the margin is.

And even that falls down if you don’t have a half handy chef and serve decent grub.

Gone are the days of the busy free house owner going down the wholesaler and buying the cheap spirits and then tipping them into the Smirnoff or Jameson bottles on the optics, mass lock in’s, the masons having their weekly meeting in a function room and people generally going to the pub……plus there isn’t the cash about now either.

You don’t need to be able to add up in your head as you pour a round these days ! lol 

One of the Walker brothers had a big house round my old way in Essex and a garage down the road if my facts are right.

[jukel123 9,041]

27 minutes ago, WILF said:

There’s f**k all money in pubs unless there is a good food to go with it…..food is where all the margin is.

And even that falls down if you don’t have a half handy chef and serve decent grub.

Gone are the days of the busy free house owner going down the wholesaler and buying the cheap spirits and then tipping them into the Smirnoff or Jameson bottles on the optics, mass lock in’s, the masons having their weekly meeting in a function room and people generally going to the pub……plus there isn’t the cash about now either.

You don’t need to be able to add up in your head as you pour a round these days ! lol 

One of the Walker brothers had a big house round my old way in Essex and a garage down the road if my facts are right.

Pubs are like churches. Nobody goes anymore. We've all seen the light. Who wants to spend an evening drinking pint after pint and talking more and more gibberish?

People have got better things to do.

[WILF 48,236]

7 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

Pubs are like churches. Nobody goes anymore. We've all seen the light. Who wants to spend an evening drinking pint after pint and talking more and more gibberish?

People have got better things to do.

I’m no fan of pubs, as I’ve got older my c**t-o-meter has broken and I can’t deal with pissed people talking bollocks…..but, that said, you can’t beat and old traditional English pub..maybe a little quiet country place or somewhere out the way…..there’s one I used to go to with a mate in the Cotswolds and that was blinding, the sort of place you could go every evening.

The Queens Head at trout beck would be another, very nice….

But the city pub is done for, shitholes of highest order….never used to be that way, they was hubs of their locality’s 

[gnasher16 30,592]

11 hours ago, jukel123 said:

Investing in a pub with no business plan of background is a quick way to go become bankrupt. In a high crime area it is sheer madness.

I can literally name 6 pubs in Salford where I was born and grew up which have been burnt out by 'protection' gangs. Didn't that happen to your compatriot John L Gardner?

Pubs are poor investments these days except for the odd one or two.

 

John was up to his neck in it he didnt quite fall into the category of squeaky clean role model type i was referring to 

Boxing and pubs went hand in hand back then certainly in East London lots of gyms were on a pub premises and it was quite normal for ex fighters to move into that game,very few had troubles as local faces of the day just wouldnt tolerate anyone moving in on a celebrated local sportsman....parts of East London had solid communities back then who would protect and stand up for their own.

As a business no it was never something they was going to get rich at but again they wasnt leaving sport with a packet to invest it was more a means of making the most of their popularity in order to pay the bills.

[gnasher16 30,592]

23 hours ago, WILF said:

I’m no fan of pubs, as I’ve got older my c**t-o-meter has broken and I can’t deal with pissed people talking bollocks…..but, that said, you can’t beat and old traditional English pub..maybe a little quiet country place or somewhere out the way…..there’s one I used to go to with a mate in the Cotswolds and that was blinding, the sort of place you could go every evening.

The Queens Head at trout beck would be another, very nice….

But the city pub is done for, shitholes of highest order….never used to be that way, they was hubs of their locality’s 

Shithole city pubs are nothing new mate didnt you grow up in South London .......yes they were more community orientated back then but this is why we should be trying to keep these old customs and traditions alive in my opinion,if we cant promote and encourage our own culture in our own country we cant then moan when they're taken off of us.

In white British minority areas around places like West Ham,Millwall,Tottenham just about the only places you can still be by far the white British majority is the inside of a football ground or a pub and we must hold onto that tradition.....Islam for instance doesnt want to know about football or pubs as they detest our culture so why help them along.

The pub game has changed massively over the years i remember in 89 when legislation was brought in to force breweries into selling off any pubs they owned in excess of 2000.....it was done in order to create healthy competition yet all that really happened was investment companies had a field day to the point where hundreds of years old traditions are now in the hands of operators like the Stonegate Group who now have control of around 5000 pubs nationwide,far more than any single brewery ever had in the first place !.....pubs being sold to build flats,conversations like you and i are having here taking place on a screen rather than over a pint sitting in the snug all hurt the trade....but ultimately the simple day to day habit of having a drink and something to eat socially is still strong among British people and should be held onto and protected if we hope to stand any chance whatsoever of coming back from this mess we have got ourselves into as a nation.

 

Oh and edited to say....yes im pretty sure the Walker brothers had a garage in the 60's but i think it was around Plaistow or Forest Gate somewhere.....George formed the Brent Walker group that was worth millions at one point they built Brent Cross Shopping Centre but lost everything to the bank in the early 90's.....Billy is still alive now living in Jersey last i heard,must be touching 90 i would think.

Edited March 28 by gnasher16

[WILF 48,236]

1 hour ago, gnasher16 said:

Shithole city pubs are nothing new mate didnt you grow up in South London .......yes they were more community orientated back then but this is why we should be trying to keep these old customs and traditions alive in my opinion,if we cant promote and encourage our own culture in our own country we cant then moan when they're taken off of us.

In white British minority areas around places like West Ham,Millwall,Tottenham just about the only places you can still be by far the white British majority is the inside of a football ground or a pub and we must hold onto that tradition.....Islam for instance doesnt want to know about football or pubs as they detest our culture so why help them along.

Yeah, valid mate….hard to argue with that.

Maybe I was just frequenting the wrong establishments ! lol …….i suppose it don’t help when you’re not a drinker.

1 hour ago, gnasher16 said:

The pub game has changed massively over the years i remember in 89 when legislation was brought in to force breweries into selling off any pubs they owned in excess of 2000.....it was done in order to create healthy competition yet all that really happened was investment companies had a field day to the point where hundreds of years old traditions are now in the hands of operators like the Stonegate Group who now have control of around 5000 pubs nationwide,far more than any single brewery ever had in the first place !.....pubs being sold to build flats,conversations like you and i are having here taking place on a screen rather than over a pint sitting in the snug all hurt the trade....but ultimately the simple day to day habit of having a drink and something to eat socially is still strong among British people and should be held onto and protected if we hope to stand any chance whatsoever of coming back from this mess we have got ourselves into as a nation.

Again, fair point squire.

1 hour ago, gnasher16 said:

 

Oh and edited to say....yes im pretty sure the Walker brothers had a garage in the 60's but i think it was around Plaistow or Forest Gate somewhere.....George formed the Brent Walker group that was worth millions at one point they built Brent Cross Shopping Centre but lost everything to the bank in the early 90's.....Billy is still alive now living in Jersey last i heard,must be touching 90 i would think.

Done well for themselves really mate

[jukel123 9,041]

I miss the all_ male spit and sawdust pubs. Where women and especially not children were ever seen. I always used to think they were oases of sanity, and outside the door was the mad hustle and  bustle of the city. You could have a chat with a stranger with no awkwardness.  But pubs have changed, the emphasis is on food..... and women and kids are welcomed.

I also miss getting steamed up with mates and going looking for women or mischief.

But times have changed and, we have to move with them.

 

 

Edited March 29 by jukel123