Camp Boxers Thrive On Training

Southland Times, Issue 24001, 16 December 1939, Page 20

Camp Boxers Thrive On Training

Boxing is one of the most popular sports in the military camps in the Auckland province, reports The Auckland Star. At Narrow Neck Brian McKay, one of the leading professional lightweights, is doing all he can to encourage the boys, with the assistance of Ron Grimmer, a clever young amateur.

At Ngaruawahia “Porky” Neale, former amateur light-heavyweight champion of Auckland, is keeping up his boxing. Perhaps the best known of these is “Porky” Neale, whose stocky, massive build and great strength carried him far as a boxer and League footballer. His unusual build was a problem for the military authorities, who could not find him a uniform to fit. Till one had been made specially for him, Porky was going on parade in tunic and trousers made for a six-footer. They .fitted his breadth, but the trousers had to be tucked up round his short legs and the sleeves of the tunic round his arms. Luckily, Porky is a born humorist and took the joking at his expense in good part. . Neale’s brother tells how the former champion came to join the army. Porky was a butcher managing a shop in Mount Eden, and his brother and father were also butchers. It was time someone made a change in the Neale family, said Porky, and he joined the special military force. Then at Ngaruawahia they made him camp butcher! However, an older man has now taken over that job, and Porky is in the Field Engineers.