BACK TWO CENTURIES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4952, 6 February 1937, Page 3

BACK TWO CENTURIES

BARE FIST FIGHTS STOPPED BY POLICE Just as in the days when Regency Corinthians wagered their guineas and cocked their beaver hats, two men met for a bare-fist prize-fight on a level piece of ground by King land. They stood wearing overcoats George’s Park, Wandsworth, Engto disguise the fact that they were stripped to the waist, and around them were their seconds and supporters. But the same fate that befel so many of those old-time fights awaited this one. Two police-sergeants arrived to find that nearly 1,000 people had collected, and they called for reinforcements. .Presently wire-less-equipped cars, bristling with police, rushed to the spot and the crowd melted away.

A bookmaker who was there told a Daily Mail reporter: “It all arose out of a dispute between the two boys as to whether Battersea or Wandsworth produced the better bruisers. All the neighbourhood understood it was coming off, but people also came in cars from Tooting, Mitcham, Bow, and Whitechapel, and the boys were certain of a £2O or £25 purse. When we saw it was no good because of the police we decided to pack it up. The boys shook hands and decided to meet again some other time. “We had been certain of a firstclass slamming match. Neither would have given in, and it might well have lasted an hour or an hour and a-half. “All the old-time tricks would have been fair play and the referee would have judged the clinches and throws. It is. 12 years since we have had a fight like that in Wandsworth. The two men, it was later arranged, were to meet, with gloves on, in a boxing programme at Wandsworth Stadium.