He Beat Jimmy Wilde

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 109, 10 May 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

He Beat Jimmy Wilde

Tragic Death Of Tancv Lee. Notable Boxer In The Scottish School Of Little Ins.

[)URING the blackout on the night of Wednesday, February 5, James Lee, a nightwatchman employed at a cold storage plant, was knocked down by a corporation bus in Leith and sustained fatal injuries. James Lee, a nightwatchman the name means r.'-thir. l,' : but fancy Lee? Taney Lee, the man who : * i limmy Wilde, is dead. And Taney Lee was a v- iy exrraordinary man. ■•>■ .i- in January, 1915. that Taney Lee came to London ...'• Jisviv.y Wiide for the flyweight championship. He : v. ■!-. :!.o A.R.A. bantam-weight championship in 1910, ;.•''.■!■ ho h;i<! done so it was found that his amateur " ■- !'■-• -,■] that it micht have been, and he was '."_' '•■ !vti:in the cup. which he immediatelv did. He ■• ■ r ■ p'-i.ft■--■ioncil f*~>r three years when he came to !.-•! -.:•■■ ticnt YViMe. He had had a pood record, too. but . i! '; d it-.i kr.'-'W very much about him and did know ■ •'■•* •'■■■■■ ntv-ut Jimmy Wilde. Furthermore. Lee was ''•■■:■ ■'■' •■■'l- " T d and the father of six children! It wa« • ■ .. ■ .-i.th.or surprising that the betting was five to two l- v..h a irrar.d fight. Up to the end of the tenth round • v pretty level all the way. though it is probable .• Lee was at that stage very slightly ahead on points H" "-•:-.■.miy had the best of the eleventh, twelfth and th !-:ecn-.h munds. though again the margin was small: but n.iw Lee was boxing like a man who knew he was going ' ' '•' ■"■ Then in the fourteenth round a positive hail of I- dy pur.ches was followed by a terrific right swing to the ',:... ..i.'l that was the beginning of the end.

THKKK was never any doubt of Jimmy Wilde's courage—he was ]fi!Pi' to prove that courage to the hilt against Pete Herman and Pancho Villa—and he fought gamely through the fifteenth and sixteenth rounds. But when the referee stopped the fight midway through the seventeer.th round he was staggering about blindly, wide open to be punched and with no hope of lasting the distance. Taney Lee. shipyard worker from Leith, had beaten the "ghost with a hammer in his hand," and done so without any measure of doubt. l-hit there was one thing he could not beat—weight. A year later he met Wilde again, and again at S stone. He had to knock more than a stone off to get down to the weight. He did that all right, but it left him without strength and it was only fniiratre of the very highest order that kept him on his feet until the 11th round, when, after taking the most fearful battering, he was knocked out. I.ee never played about with the weight again. He skipped the bantams altogether and fought as a feather-weight, winning the championship from Charlie Hardcastle, in 1917 and making the Lonsdale belt his own property by defending it successfully against Joe Conn and Danny Morgan. He retained the championship until 1920, when Mike Honeyman succeeded him. Even then this ' astonishing man was not finished. Far from it, indeed, for at the age of 45 he fought a draw for the lightweight championship of Scotland—and there were many who thought he had won. But Taney Lee will not be-remem-bered as a good feather-weight nor as a truly astonishing veteran, but as the man who beat Jimmy Wilde and as the first of the great school of Scottish flyweights. We talk of the Brummagen school, even of the Welsh school, but rarely if ever of the Scottish school. Yet no country in the world has produced such a galaxy of stars as has Scotland with her "little men." Look at. the names: Taney Lee, Elky Clarke, Johnny Hill, Benny Lynch, Jackie Paterson, all fly-weights and all real champions. And then there was Jim Higgins who was only just a bantam-weight and who, if he 1 had not been rushed along altogether too fast, would have beaten the best.

But we are concerned now with the flyweights. Tancv Lee was champion in 1915; Elkv Clarke from 1924-26; Johnny Hill from 1927-29-Benny Lynch from 1935 until 1935; Jackie Paterson is champion now. Inevitably the question arises. "Who was the best of these?" writes "Haruspex" in "The Field." Elky Clarke fought for the championship of the world, and received an unmerciful hiding from Fidel La Barba. a university graduate and an ex-amateur champion. Bennv Lvnch won the championship of the world when he knocked out Jackie Brown in 1935 and defended it successfully against Small Montana, who was the recognised American champion. Neither Tancv Lee. nor Johnnv Hill, nor Jackie Paterson, won a world's championship fit is only fair to say that the latter has not vet had a chance to do so>. nor for that matter fought for one. On that basis, therefore. Benny Lynch stands out as the best, with Elkv Clarke as runner-up. But it is not quite so simple as that. In Taney Lee's days there was no flyweight championship. Jimmy Wilde was recocnised as champion of the world after his victory over Tancv Lee. and was the first' champion of the world. I do not think that anyone would call either Jackie Brown or Benny Lynch our other two world champions, the equal of Jimmy Wilde. Jackie Brown certainly was not. Benny Lynch was a great champion—and one of the most damaging punchers at his weight the world has ever seen, but he could not compare in skill with the "mighty atom," and it must be remembered that he was once, in the hey-day of his glorv. given what amounted to a boxing lesson by Jimmy Warnock, the Irish flyweight,_in a fight that was onlv just over the weight. No one would deny that Benny Lynch was in every way a worthy champion of the world, even a great champion, but he was not Jimmy Wilde. Discussion of the merits of champions of different generations is never profitable. Jimmy Wilde and Benny Lynch never met in the ring. and one can only guess what would have happened had they done so in their prime. But Tancv Lee and Jimmv Wilde did meet. Some might say that Wilde was not then in his prime; but he was acknowledged champion of the

• Champion \ ', Of the World \

world the year after. Tancv Lee beat Jimmy Wilde decisively at the flyweight limit, and it is worth remembering that that feat was accomplished on one other occasion only, by Pancho Villa, and Wiide was then at the very end of bis career and a long way past his best. I have made no mention of Johnnv Hill or Jackie Paterson. Johnnv Hill's career was all too short. He won the amateur championship in 1926 and went on to win the professional championship in 1927. His tragic death robbed us of a champion who might well have rivalled Jimmy Wilde in reputation if not in the uncanniness of the latter's methods. Paterson is champion to-day. He is only 20. a shipyard worker like Taney Lee. and a southpaw (i.e.. he boxes right-hand foremost) with a tremendous dash and no mean punch. I do not know if he stvles himself champion of the world! I believe the Americans describe Little Dado as such. Paterson certainly has as good or better a claim than the American and would surely start favourite in any match between the two. All these men I have seen fight, some of them many times. Clarke. Hill. Lynch and Paterson I have watched fighting at their true weight. Clarke was always dour and determined and powerful: Hill was classically brilliant: Lynch was grand against Brown, glorious against Montana, poor against Warnock: Paterson—well Jackie Paterson is a real top-notch champion, and in my humble opinion the best flyweight the world has seen since Jimmy Wilde. The latter I saw many times, but always in fights against men out of his weight. And whenever I think of Wilde I think of three fights in particular—against Joe Lynch, against Pal Moore, and against Pete Herman: but that is another story. Taney Lee I saw only as a featherweight, when he lost his title in the 19th round to Mike Honeyman and he was then 38. If he was not a great feather-weight when I saw him, he was good enough. But as a flyweight he once beat the Great Jimmy Wilde, and that inside the distance. That surely is honour enough.