1958-01-27 — Page 4

China Mail 德臣西報 中國郵報 All

~Page 4

WHERE

ARE

THEY

NOW?

RUCE

B former

THE CHINA ·MAIL. MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 1058.

SHIRLEY STRINGER presents a holiday report on the Latin island with the British touch

The Champ drives There's Only One

WOODCOCK,

a ten-ton truck

The company secretary-and night was being put back for an what a secretary!--in blonde hour. The next thing I knew heavyweight Mrs Norah Woodcock. From I was waking up in hospital champion of Britain, the where I was sitting in the sub three days later in Leeds, Empire and Europe, is to- stantially furnished lying-room which, for some strange reason day a lorry-driver, up at I would say that she is also the dawn, and putting in a ten- boss. hour day for n modest

wage.

I

thought Win Shomeld. Between that dressing-room and that hospital bed-nothing, absolutely nothing.

Into

For BRUCE WOODCOCK that tragic night of the Baksi fight is a complete blunk. But Britain's former heavyweight champion has no regrets. He has become a solid man of business ...

With a pub bought and sold (at a prod), with capital safely invested, with on occasional

Jt vas quite a night, Baksi, a That is his story, and he shoot over the moors, with an bad-tempered clown outaldo Woodcock, our trained-to-a-hair' sticks to it with all the abundantly happy family life, the ring. was trumpeted

champion, reduced wheels

the country with all the phoney fumbling, witless wreck on the of a Yorkshire- and with those wagon brondness

aeldom idle, you could DFCSS

floor, The encouraging chants man born in Balby, which Bruce Woodcock or a pretty cremony of a film star; ring-

of likla, Moor Baht 'Al died depressing-looking soild exception to the legend side seats priced at 20 Guineas A

for

last time each

the

in the throats of assembled changed dump attached geographi-that 6ghters and their

London,

hands

Yorkshiremen as the baticrel, are som parted.

treble their value; more cally to Doncaster: ::

than bewildered Woodcock scrambled 100,000 applications were made up to take seven more thun- for the 11,000 Lekets avaliable; derous punches on the chin, and

of that ghostly first Tols takings topped the then to suffer two more counts before

our record of £54,000, of the which Woodenck's share must been not 1055 than

ja

money

We talked of fights, of Wood- Woodcock Now nobody in his righ ccck wlas and mind would dare enll even a 38-year-old Bruce Woodcock a defeats, and inevitably, of that there is tragic night of April 15, 1947 Nevertheless, Hnr. rather more than meets the ear to be in his soft-pedal claim clutching a living at the wheel of n 10-ton wagon

He certainly drives. But he also happens to own the lorry, plus two others, plus a sleek new Zodiac, plus a gymnasium,

desirable plus

red-brick residence of seven rooms in the "better part of Doncaster near the race-course--where I wager no late agent would look

you for less than £5,000.

Happy family life

by George Whiting

have

£15,000.

at

the

Bul

round.

None of us knew then that Nat Rogers, then matchmaker this crumpled champion of ours for New York's Madison Square led had his jaw broken by that

"blacksmith" swing. first Garden, arrived with or almost we saw him dragged like a war frantic offer £30,000 for winner to fight Joe Louls for casualty to his cerner, there to

patted prodded and the heavyweight championship patched and ice-packed

Even Baksi's smelling-salted of the world. attractive - blonde wife, Anne, semblance of recovery. was roped into the pubility picture.

be

one

End And

to

some

his After Jespille the groping, paper- An all for what? All for legged Woodcock was Dal

most lekeningly there alone-alone save for il methodical Baksi savage but British heavy intent Can quick and Onal

dividends,

....when, this sime Woodcock one of the was crumpled Into a broken. thorough-paced thrashings ever half-conscious heap by'n glart handed to a anthracite miner from Pennsyl. weight champion. vania named Joe Baksi.

that

The bell hushed

com- the

murprise you on one," said the in

contemporary rare His Woolcock from behind `a

"What a bloody fool! What a mug to let myself get caught like that." he stormed.

But the chairman of Bruce Woodcock Enterprises Ltd. has no need of wrath. There's bitss to be made, and loads to deliver ....distance no object.

-(London Express Service).

Casino Like This!

L

ORENZO the shoemaker

la singing. And the Casino in Minorca is silent. His tenor voice is untrained, but the uria is as splendid as the soft, dark night is

WEIM.

The hundreds of Britons who this summer discover Minorce

an island of silver beaches under the high blue of the Mediter- ranean sky... will sit in their turn at the Casino and hear Lorenzo them- selves.

For Lorenzo is al ways singing.

But don't be misled

No by the Casino. slender-fingered, cold-

PAIN? IT IS JUST A FRIENDLY WARNING

WHAT is the meaning of my pain?" John Pattison asked as he sat down in my consulting-room. He was quite a bit more worn than he need have been,

Pain for the doctor is as important a clue towards u final diagnosis us finger- The uther Woodcock genera-,

A right to the chi put prints are to detective. Woodcock down for nine....he tions are also doing n!! right, Itis

rbeled into thanks to the lorry driver.

another right, this Pain, like fingerprints, can nothing or everything. been settled

ume for eight. For three more mean parente have

Referee Moss Deyong

those prevaricating rounds of calculated To quie one-side their own small property. daughter, seven-year-old Janet, cigarette. "There have been pieled his instructions as

and strielly. legitimate mayhemphilosophers: "It all depends." His articles, stories. evet a book, fanfares died away, the bell the half-paralysed attends a convent school.

Woodcockt "On what?" asked Mr Patti- was supposed to hushed our expectant chatter stumbled around an Un opon son, nine-year-old Bruce Junior, about what

son, "Where you feel it, @ght and the fight between America's target, with little else but on have said conerning my rough it n secular establish-

a with Bais. but also Estens to

But the truth is Joe Baksi (15st 3b) and instinct for survival to stem the suppose?" ment

Bruce Woodcock tide of Baks!'s clubbing punches, private lutor twice

that I do not remember a single England's sveck.

I have never (13st. 121⁄2lb.) thing about it.

lo confessed this

anybody possibly one minute, ârst sought before but my mind is a com- target and eye met eye in silent

skirmish. piete blank about it all.

Those three lorries and other asrets te vested in The Bruce Enterprises Ltd.... Woodcock "all kinds of general haulage ....dislarce no object." Wood- cock has become a solid man of

business.

was on.

For

"I remember warming up Then-bingo! Bales) swung a my dressing-room at Harringay, ponderous-looking left to his and then being told that the opponent's head-and there was

The evidence is most conclusive!

BY APPOINTMENT

30 HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH 17

KIN DISTILLENS • BOOTH'S DISTILLERIES, LTD.

Tt-ht

FINEST

DRY OIN

BOOTH'S

The World's finest DRY GIN

Imported by CALDBECK, MACGREGOR & CO., LTD.

I

Marti

A outtar, a song, some teine...it's a party..

eyed croupier has ever seen

Now while visitors are still it. No minik has visited it, fow, it is the custom to invita them into somo, local house for and precious few diamonds, a drink after church on Sun-

The Casino, the centre of Minorcan night life, is just.

day..

*

It is an enlightening' experl-

a little bar where, in dark ence. corners, the tall barrels of wine are standing.

NELSON TOUCH

LAND

for The whidtws, skrangdy this part of the world," have

cords sach

ond #re called wladeres. The furniture is an ødd mixture of Chippendale and Minorcan.

Outside there is a memory of Britain 48 well

a town

erler who, with curlous hat and

ND when Lorenzo is fired, then Pepe, another shoemaker, will sing cheeky darkly sunburned legs, calls the

hours.. songs about his audience.

High on a hill over the lovely A guitar, the local wine, harbour is a typical Georgian and each night there is a house, It was here that Lady. party as spontaneous as Hamilton Pepe's laughter.

Study Lorenzo for A moment and you will see why the British holiday- makers are turning to this island in the sun....

und Nelson found most happiness. And their bed- room and study are kept today as if they had just left.

More hotels are being built on the island, for it la obvious that soon it will compete with Majorca as a boilday centre.

But it will take time beford He is a Spaniard with the beaches, white and warm in the sun, are crowded and before the little roads have to ba

I explained his way. "If blue eyes and fair skin. you are asleep." I said to Mr

happen to His blond is that of a widened, Pattison, "and you the pain, British sailor. And so many be lying awkwardly,

A Minorca Is

for .place The islanders. love

as a result, may wake you up ancestors of the folk here children. In other words, the pain is

A

OFTEN WRONG

that From that point the so-called

Most people assume mussacre. they feel a recurring pain in the night becɛme ever there were justification for chest something is wrong inside honourable surrender or mere-the chest. If they feel it in the ful closure, this was it. Bakal, hand they jump to the conclu brushing aside the thin trickle slon that the site of the pain is of blood from his left eyebrow, in the hand. Often they would jabbed with his left and slashed

danger signal. It means; Move can trace forebears back to their own and will while away be wrong. with his right at the itable

over, John. You're lying on your the timber ships of Nelson's day with young visitors. before him. larget

Remorse- A pain over the appendix, armor something like that."

fleet. 'i

Every little girl on Minorca lessly, the grim and bruising in the abdomen, may be the

wears a stiff starchy petticoat In the same way, when we

Walk along n business continued until referee result of a pleurisy in the cheat,

winding and is proud of her lace dress. Deyong at last called Bakaf off Tingling pains in the left arm are awake and we notice that

with its black

Minorca is a place for grown- after one minute 12 seconds of may be the result of referred electric pain pass through us as street

and the seventh round.

ups. There are bathing in the capital, sailing, resiping, and sherry at

came

.

PUT the island drink Is gin D and soda, a taste, bequeath- ed by the men who sailed away te Trafalgar,,

the pain from

heart. Many furtively as a married man look-shadow and its hot white pains in the thorax or abdomen ing at a blonde, it means we sunshine Hardly a sound could be hoard are due to arthritis in the spine. have been in an awkward pos Mahon, and suddenly, jut eightpence a glass.

ture. Putting too much strain In jam-packed Harringay as

or ting from the wall of a they led Woodcock away. Led "It mokes diagnosis sound on ong particular muscle

Mr Pattison tendon.

house as Spanish as an SO COURTEOUS. dimcult," him, eventually, to a hospital very bed, to an operation on his sald. "Solving a murder seems

"We should be glad of the onion you will see an elegant splintered jaw, to temporary a piece of cake by comparison."

"otherwise bow window straight from blindness, and to four months But certain pains are charac- warning." I said,

a pain we might strain that muscleCheltenham, of darkness ay bits of boneteristic. For example,

the direction more seriously." perilously

to that travels in near

Round another corner, occasional those So to

praise from loin penetrating his right eye.

groin is highly brief pains, acid as red litmus and where the acacia trails

of paper. Be grateful for their over the walls and the There is a courtesy that has suggestive kidney stones. ostentatious signals. Be

pain wicker chairs stand in the almost gone from the world. "And what for people devold of a

at The taxi-driver will call brings on the sense. Those who suffer a con-sun you will find children

your hotel, to make sure, you pain also pro- dition called syringomyelia will singing.

enjoyed yourself on the beach. vides

an im- tell you the advantage of feeling

Familiar is their song... even If some rival' drove you portant clue," I pain.

They will point to thels Tishoo, tiškoo, said.

all fall there, which the fingers pain come on evidence of old cigarette burns, down."* after eating the People having this recall that Colonel Eddie Eagan-the Rhodes scholar who doctor may think of ulcers or derangement of the become £ British amateur gall-stones:

As he has told us now, Bruce Woodcock does not remember

But we who were there on the safe side of the ropes remember, all too well,

that Buksi avalanche.

1

'A brave boy'

́All in a

doctor's

day: by

CEDRIC

CARNE

Should

sorry

shaw

often

particular

nervous

..

on taking a deep system do not receive the red HAUNTED ISLE

or pain warning

and

is burn their fingers.

champlon and chairman of the breath, of muscle straln New York State Athletle Com-piturisy. And I the pain mission-lifted a drab grey made worse by remaining quiet blanket off. Woodcock battered but relieved by exercise, it could head in the dressingroom, and be arthrius. murmured:

"You are a brave boy who has taken a beating cut there. Rough around for while, and you'll Hck them all yet."

I recall, too, a Woodcock who later that night held an ice-pack to his eyes over a hotel wash- basin....and who gave vent to an enormous wrath as he hurled à pillow at the walk

so literally

PROTECTED

116

ig. Spanish In

In any shop a chair is 'quickly pushed behind, your. Inces al- most before you are inside,

Minoren is a place for getting Idly sunburned. The climate, is of the Mediterranean, SOME of the children are typical

as swarthy as. Spaniards though not quite so hol

Majorca, "You and I," I said to Mr should be, but others are

And this The food! Mr Pattison, though, could not Pattison, "have normal spinnt golden-haired. be specific about the pains from cords, and If we accidentally song has been sung on the tradition, but simpler.

And the lobsters are,

Jamous. which he occasionally suffered move our hand on to a glowing island since the British

he got them here, elgarette, we pull our arms Sometimes

fleet salled away 150 years

There is no industry and therefore Uttle noise. Imitation were as painful as a red

Toledo Jowellery is made in the acedle

they went before other words we are protected by

little houses for export to But our pain sense. 1 pct." could say John Pattison.

and When I saw him to the door Latin as the sun and the America, everybody gets these now then One man will note them I stepped-accidentally-on his smooth Mediterranean can

a month, another man corn. twice

"I know," he said. "Bless the make it. But It is haunted once a year. Generally they are

too, by memories of Britain. of no importance.

sometimes there. Though they away, fast.""

hot Mr Pattison nodded. "In ago.

pain."

MIND MY bike

THE WEST

ROAD CLOSED

TO TANKS

KHÔNG HAY T CÓ P LORNE ADVICEN ESTIMATES!! Let me be your guide 373

Minoren is as happily

Cheese and shoes are produced in tiny shops. That is all.

TWO AMBITIONS

It is no guth sen

TT is no good searching for tho

There

nono.

There is one night chub the Trocadoro. The flamenco dancing isn't all thats brilliant and for heaven's sake: don't order champagne,

That will immediately brands you as a multi-mlikoniaire, on an Island where life is cheap · and money is incredibly unimpor“. tant.

But don't sorrow, for the Minorcans. becausó 'they are

poor.

They are too busy fcellar unhappy for the peoplo, whơ cannot stay.

*

I met only

ono

who

| wanted to leave. And hg. Lorenzo, the singing shotifiskor. Lorenzo has two ambitions. To marry a British woman and, to sing at Covent Garden.

1. But when you

Minore, I will Lorento will still be thu nhà h Lon sistico" at "tha Cas

Comments

Approved members can add comments, bookmarks, and private notes.

No comments yet.

Private Research Note

Private notes are available after approval.