K.O. PUNCH!
IT was after midnight. Outside the Albert Hall darkness draped the cold and silent streets. The last open-topped omnibus had gone rumbling home and, apart from a few West End revellers, London was asleep.
But under the vast baroque dome of the Al- bert Hall, one of the most glittering audiences the prize ring has known sat fas-
cinated yet aghast as they watch- the down-
ed the end of an era
fall of an idol.
For this was the night of January 13, 1921; the night when Jimmy Wilde, giving away more than 20 lb., fought Pote Herman of America
17 pain-racked rounds.
for
It was the night when the Prince of Wales-now the Duke of Windsor -peers, society women, MPs, and the whole meaty mass of fight fans in the cheaper seats came to sec
the matchless Welsh Ay- Poto Herman weight tackle the Ameri- (right) kept
bantam king from up a non-stop
but Wildo
can
New Orleans,
The magnetic. almost fey quality of Juny Wilde which
attack
would not
drew and held everybody-from go down princes to pickpockets, from
jord to labourers has never For Jimmy Wilde defled all
even in the
been equalled violent and garish world boxing
T
of natural laws.
13
+
In his prime he stood exactly 5 ft 1 ins. The circumference was Bins.. bis To understand the univer- of his wrist
11 ins, his kal Appeal of this watt-like tiny biceps were
while እ። 8 ins, figure who looked as if he forearm had just escaped from weight hovered Incredibly b orphanage, we musi plunga
tween Ost, 12 1b, and 7 st. 4 ib, back to the golden age of
alithering Yet, there he was boxing before the Great War
and sliding uncannily around Valley, -to the Rhondda
frustrated with its frowning slag-heaps the ring, dissolving ice
mirage before the #ullen picada.
onslaughts
bewildered of his opponents and then knocking down
several meh
slones heavier than himself with right hand straight out of hell. In London, where, inevitably, one fine day a Wilde arrived seavels of a zackfu!
golden guineas, the sanie fantastle pat- tern unfolded,
and
Wilde was born.
DESPAIR
where
Here a man had to fight L live.
Hure, on a grinding pittance of two shillings a day in the m'n, men knew little else but half-led beliles and the bleak brooding anger of despair.
And here, amid squalor and which withered and poverty rolled the soul, this pailid mile, kid this freakish fag-end of a grew up.
When he was Bitle more than fur stone he was already
bowling them over,
When he was a shnde over
was fighting u he six stone the booth, tackling all-comers and toppling men weight.
twice
his
On one crowded day this walking skeleton calmly floor- ed 18 out of 17 men, then went off for a cup of tea and a cake. Sprelater who had come to laugh stayed to marvel.
of
A
At first, when the Welshman with the mule kick in his frall twigs of arms presented himself at the offices of the various pro- muters, the laughter was loud and prolonged.
HIS GENIUS
One leading matchmaker even went as far as to swear that he wa "not going to be mixed up with murder."
Indeed, R was not untii Jimmy Wilde kacked ou Young Nipper in 45 seconds on his first sensational appearance at the old Blackfriars Ring that the cynies and wiseacres were Jerked upright in their chairs
THE CHINA MAIL. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29. 1960..
The thrills of great fights... the eclipse of champions, the K.O. punches that made boxing history... They are all recaptured in an absorbing new series starting today with the dramatic story of the night when Jimmy Wilde, 'The Ghost with a Hammer in hiş Hand,' went down to glorious defeat
by ALAN HOBY
Tears-at the downfall of
fever.
Atóm. The Tylorstown Ter~ 20-shivered like a man with z for... The Furious Freak... and-most colourfully authentic of the lot-The Ghost with the Hammer in his Hand.
And he brought his total of conteste since he first began in the boxing booiba of Wales to the eye-blinking tally of more than 850, WITH ONLY TWO DEFEATS.
This, then, was the fabulous8 boxing legend, the pet and pride of all Britain who, on that tense night in January, 1921. moved out in the fateful 17th round to face the finest bantan- weight living-Pete Hermon, the swarthy kingpin from the US.A.
Around the ringside where the cigar smoke plumed up from the 10-guinea seats back in the main body of the hall. and high in the galleries the clamour was stilled as a white froth of anxious faces craned forward.
WIFE HELPED
For, unbelievably, something had gone wrong.
Their midget hero, their with wonderful litte wraith
11011- the unruffled air and chalant skills. was in bad shape... a poor, toitering they parody of the marlelan all knew. Gone, under Herman's cease- less hammering,
the peculiar. flat-footed shume which, time and again in the nast, has enabled the Welsh wizard to scud sweetly out of danger.
Gone, too, was the spilt- second sense of distance, the They looked i the parch-that the experts began to perfect punch thing which ment skin, at the thin, spind-realise that here was ring Wilde had perfected years be- ly nuck, at the pinched, sickly genius who was as unique as fore-when using their bed- checks, at the arms and legs his own fingerprints.
no thicker than matchsticks,
and they shook their bends in amazement.
Weish
How-thuy asked incredu lously in their
Hing, musleal
voless-ald the Bittle gnome de
it?
No one, least of all his dazed and confused opponents, could tell them.
room us a gymnasium, he prac-
After that Wildo, with his sad,ised for hour after hour with his young wife, Lisbeth, who wore a proiective shield
In the second round Hermio
unsmiling features and quiet Krey eyes, so develd of fire and vivacity, rocketed to the top.
Zulu Kil.
He won the fly-weight cham-thleksel, square-jawed, naked plonship of the world from the Wilde with a cross to the chin which would have dropped, a He was given bizarre and out-welter-weight. landish nicknames like
The
Wilde, giving away Ave years Human Hairpin... The Mighty and nearly two
stones he was
CLIVE GRAHAM IN INDIA
'Patched-up' veterans
keep flag flying
Bombay.
Main theme of conversation here for this visitor concerns the Queen's visit
on Friday, February 24.
The occasion will be celebrated t Instituted Quock Ellanboth II
by the running of the Indian cup.
St Leger and the specially You may read caustic comment
CHESS
By LEONARD. BARDEN
Here is a problem by 5, 0. Radioy (Manchester City Nóra, 1920) White to play and mate 'fn,twa moved.-
Solution No. 5949—1 R-B21, Q=Q4; 1 BXR, Resions. It is Fetal for "Hipok to leave. Aix NEP. HARVEYRE, N
on this Cup because it is for Class IV Indian-bredis—horEOS Hittle better Ihan selling- plater.
But it has been chosen as o Face most likely to attract the liveliest competition tor the horses avallabto--and i will carry the equivalent of
£2,000 in prize money.
'Unique avont*
"It should be a unique event of its kind," says Mr R. B. Rula Bombay's chief steward "With only vamo 360 hore -training,” in the stables hare, we -- have had to go for the mdit sultable midlum."7 The Quan Thu Dạy chó có hai
Sandringhath-bred cast-offa lit
action?
This is Montishood, a ibe-year-
back. When his jockey hit him he sulked and refused to run.
The winner here, of the Hom!
Medy Cup, was
another ex- Ferted hore, seven-your-old Golden Herde, grigtually nomed Accumulator and rain. ed by Walter Nightingal Among the unplaced was the eight-year-old Court Marual horse Naval Honour-also once in Nightingall's yard. Another formerly well-known
performer to cost 143
somu
up.com was Spen Valloy, raming in the colours of Mr M. P. fides of March) Davis, Do you remember this horse Anishling close second to Itustam for the 1993 Cham- pagne Stakes at Dopeister? He has lost his form (I should think his lege palą him, to judgo by their hagpaarance). fer this failure nay happenas
Class III.event.
old half-brother to Aureole, | Currency rpalatalions here
1
cow owned by the Maharajah
of Gwalior, But the Is
italy in nos,him win, for the
has become a “zoguo,”
I watched him at "cione quare
(trá and""'at the muslai : Hoenders," or "the Viru" To the straight, his girl wont sat i
moverely Hilled the inourt-
Ing of horses, from England,
"It a licence, could be obtained
A
it would be granted only to a MARINUM AL: #300.
Be owners have 12 Daleht up and
make do with the Veteránd Ján
London Express Service,
fest.
But he stayed on his HE WOULD NOT GO DOWN. In the cighth-and you
could almost hear the crowd's groan Herman.
a boxing idol
know that Wildo was weaken-
ing; that the sands of time and fortune were running out for the raglie, preposterous {ite Agure in front of him.
There was one final Burry of point-scoring magic in the 15in round from the rapidly fading Welshman,
Then a whirling right in the 10th had Wilde quivering on the pro-lpice. And. suddenly, that entire, rapl audience knew that In mad tad come for Jimmy Wilde.
As the bell tolled the 17th round, Pelo Herman, disdaining the defence at which he was such a master, shot from his corner.
SPINE-CHILLING
. There was
no ducking, no weaving, siçin long. Just that brushing pain-tipped, clumping right as l aside Wilde's pecking counters spilled the Welshman over the na if they were pats from a canvas for a count of seven. powder puff, drove the Welsh-
The whole arena men and man with pile-driving punches
women--winced Into the cones,
scythed homA,
blurred But Wilde, his eves and unfocused, WOULD NOT STAY DOWN.
But again Wilde, quelling the nausea in the pit of his stomach, WOULD NOT GO DOWN.
HE WEAKENS
Back he 'stormed like ashen demon thumping the sur- American with such prised venom that the relleved speeta- tors roared and swayed in their scats.
as
the
JIMMY WILDE today-n he is 68, weighs 10st. 5lb. and lives in retirement in
Barry
you don't know how to down."
The Prince of Wales sat In the ringsido seats
This meant that the powerful Ilo, American had the whole atter- noon to ent as much as he liked and to ecene in at what weight he pleased in the evening.
As the chos-Mighly Atem slumped exchiusted en his stool, men at the ringside. stood and wept.
It was too much, Wilde. flushed and tight-lipped, refused Others, unable any longer to to budge from the rubbing- bear the alght of Wildo's eclipse table. The match had been after such on exhibition af made at Øst, dib, and either courage, mode for the exits. Herman weighed in gain or
And as they spilled cut into there was no fight.. the night the arguments riged and the inquisis bigan.
י
In the end, ono faelor, and factor alone, saved that one
turbulenco and dis- night of order the prezence in the Albert Hall of the Pince of Wales.
How had it happened? What was behind this calamity, this terrible defeat-only the third in Wilde's career?
Tha fragle truth was that. although Wilde received £8,300
Jimmy Wilde, sitting, there for this aghi, deslinyat la Hvid, and upret knew this-just had turned ngainat
The Ghost
with the Hammer in his Hand, Before the contest had even begun there had been, near rlots.
AN UPROAR
frightening spazins of concussion
À barrago blow which softened him up for his
of hooting had the last world title fight with Pan- erupted from spectators in
when they cho Villa two years later, when chopper sections
lighting found that inefficient he was knocked
obscured part of the ring from rounds.
their view.
for a count of five.
out in Even
he knew that however moun- tainous the odcis against him, he could not dieppont the first incnber of the Royal Family over to gracs a prize fight in a publie "capacity,
Suddenly, he jumped up. and cried: "Shut up, all of what you... I don't caro Herman welgtis. I'll do it for The Prince, bat no one else.” Then face lined
and grim, grey eyes storing ahead, the dy- with weight champion of the world simultaneously
the reem another Uproar marched cut of had broken out downstairs in certain and crippling defeat.... Wilde's dressing-room.
NEXT THURSDAY: manager For Wilde and his
had discovereil Herman was overweight:
Yet,
With the Albert Hall as silent as a morgue, he got up-to run
But even at this point, with slap-bang into another paralys his head swimming and logs these scenes, an
ing right hander,
like jelly, Wilde heaved himself Spine-chilling in its speed, upright, only to go down again
chunky delivered with every
Herman's 320-odd ounce of Puands. Dis was the cllacher, the "ettler," It sent Wilde's stringy bady the middle crashing through ropes and the back of his head hit the edge of the ring with sickening thud.
rt reduced Wilde to crumpled heap and led to those
But Hermat, with cat-ond. mouse craftiness, was stelling. The American's tide of energy was running more stongly than
over.
For he knew-as the pooplo prering through the fug and tobacco haze of the ringalde
Four D. Jones) FLEET OF FURMAN BARGES BY MADDOCKS,
And this time referee Jack Terdy Lewis Smith, sweeping aside his pro- that tests, collected. Wilde in his arms and carted him away tu his commer.
that, instead of weighing in ati the ringside in the evening as Wilde's contract silpulated--and said ns the Welshman had done - "I'm sorry. Jimmy," Jack Smith in a phrase which Herman's agreement had nilcw- af "buted him to mount the scale has become "Immortal, .0
I've got to pick you up because two o'clock in the afternoon.
APPEAR ON THE HORIZON.....
I SAY, STAND BY TO RECRIVE TWO DOZEN GLORIOUS
FURMAN MISSILES/
GOOD GRIEF? (LOOK, ROCKETS ARE
ARRIVING!
FERDINAND
NANCY
I HOPE OUR DANCE__WILL.
BE A BIG SUCCESS
STACK ME?
I'D BETTER RUSH OFF AND SORT OUT
THE SITES
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NAME
BAND?
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TARDE AND JABLON BONE
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