DOWN BUT NOT OUT

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 17, 3 March 1939, Page 8

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

BOXING TEACHER STRIKES

HARD TIMES

(From The Guardian's London

Correspondent)

LONDON, February 11

The man who gave boxing lessons to Fred Buckland, the amateur and then professional light-weight champion of South Africa, declared this week that he was "down for the count, but not out.*' He had just learned that his famous gymnasium in Marylebone Road, London, would have to close because of rent arrears. But 70-year-old Professor Andrew J. Newton, who has taught the "noble art" for 50 years, was emphatic that there was "life in the old dog yet."

"I've still got my health," he said, "and something will,turn up." The old man, twice British amateur champion, who has trained more than a thousand winners, including Oxford, Cambridge, Sandhurst, Navy and Army champions, was taking the blow pluckily. Recalling some of the past glories of his gym., which bears the high-sounding title of the Empire School of Arms and Physical Culture, he said: "Once we were full right up and couldn't take another pupil. The crisis last year did it. We weren't doing too badly till then, but, ever since, things have been really bad."

In its hey-day the gymnasium was packed full for fights. At times, as many as six young boys were given free board, lodging, and training because Mr Newton thought they "shaped well." "One youngster used to feed my puppies through the railings," he said. "I took a fancy to him, trained him and he became an Army, heavyweight champion and, later, a professional. His name was George Clark.

Of Fred Buckland the professor related: "Soon after I started giving Fred lessons his mother came along and said he was not to box, as he might get hurt, but when she arrived Fred was getting down to a huge steak, and she saw that we were taking care of him, so she let him continue his lessons."