1961-08-22 — Page 9

Page

FAME in their FISTS

END OF SERIES

THE CHINA· ·MAIL. TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1961.

'KID' LEWIS THE EAST END WONDER

WHO BECAME

As a barefoot boy he fought for coppers As a champion he threw handfuls of silver to cheering, admiring East End. crowds. This was lovable, generous Ted 'Kid' Lewis, the finest welter-weight Britain has ever produced.

He was as Jewish as checsecake-the Aldgate Juggernaut, son of a poor cabinet-maker and the greatest crowd-puller the British ring has known, As a flat-footed, scrawny little kid with a face the colour of parchment and a body like an animated hat-rack, he received his first fight purse -fivepence plus a penny for a cup of coffee at the old Judean Club in London's hard and poverty-haunted East End.

Gershon Mondeloff was his name, but round Aldgate way, where he was born in a dismal, gaslit tonement east of the Pump on October 24, 1896, they called him The Kid" Ted "Kid" Lewis....

Right from the start, the bare- foot buy whose moln diel each day was often a plece of cake or a slice of brend thinly coated with sugar-all his hard-pressed afford with a parents could family of eight to feed-fought to. live and lived to fight.

that first Avepenny After scrap at the Judean Club, and to his father, quite unknown who regarded buxing with the florceat acorn, the whirlwind Kid fought regular six rounders down in the East End for pursen sixpence to half ranging from

a erown.

For

breath he with every drew the Kid lived and dream. ed boxing. The harsh, aulmal ameli of the ring was like incense to this hungry boy. who became a professional at 13. and no mere barrage of words. however scathing, was going to deter him from carv ing a living with his fits.

average of Fighting on on once a week, he tackled every- one and everybody and counted himself lucky If he earned

a round.

£1

New star

Until, suddenly, the boarse- voiced newsboys who Bold evening papers for a ha'penny outside the gilt and plush muste halls of the West End were 'shouting that a sensational new Blar had risen.

They were right for, by the time he was 17, the fledgeling Kid had knocked out Alex Lambert for the British fea- therweight championship.

After winning the European featherweight crown, the Kid, who spent his purses almal në quickly 19 he earned them, sailed for Australla and the United States.

And it was in the lund of the teeming dollar, less than 12 months after he Brst landed, that the Kid won the vacant welter-weight championship of the world when he beat Jack Britton in Boston.

That was in 1915 and the new world champion from Aldgate was still seven weeks short of 10.

For the next FIAT years the Kid and Brition fought 24 bitter slugging contests up and down the Stales

and because of local American rules 01 that time lighter could only win the title by a knock- out-must of them were "no decision" battles.

Great left

Then in 1919 Lewis lost the ille to Britton while still sick and shivering front typhold fever, and later in the year returned to England.

This was the fighting demon who, after being set upon by four hoodlums in the East End, knocked all four out. Then, os the last one crashed into the gutter, he took out his wallet, extracted his visiting card, and gently dropped it on the uncon- scious thug's chest.

Abpardly generous, he would go down cach week to his beloved East End with his pockets filled with £20 or £30 in stiver to thruw to the surging cheering throngs.

But If the Kid was adored Irom Whitechapel to Bow, there was one boxer in Britain who was convinced ho bad the beat- Ing of him..

.I

name

WIRE Johnny Bosham, then welterweight champion of Britain, a tali, graceful, beautifully poised Welshman from Wroxham, with a left hand like a flashing piston. At Olympia on June 1920, this, princely boxing cavaller from Wales met the Kid for the first time,

Sports Diary

TODAY TENNIS

LMC annual fouthamant, 0.30 pm.

BOWLE Men's Open Fairy, semi-Anāls at RKFC, #20 DIN.

ANCHERY.

Deginners, night «i NÁƑ Kai T%M

A.C. 0,30,pat

TOMORROW

LA TENNIS

LNC Buqjument. 8.20 pin. Annus!", megingot, Ase, à 00, Bouth Chiny Mothe "Pust Board

For ninet rounds under the blazing banks of Bloodlights, the handsome champion moved like against the palu

oiled silk stalking Lewis.

Then one ripping right, like a

alash

the face. razor severed an artery in Basham's mouth and the referee stopped the contest.

across

Ted "Kid" Lowis, his face au expressionless as the sphinx, had achieved a unique ring double. He had become the only boxer to win the British welter-weight title after he had already won-and lost-the world championship.

Corinthian

time and again streaked in and out, in and out, before Lewis could get set for a counter.

It was nearly all Basham in those carly scintillating stanzas of exquislie boxing.

Yet,

even

now, with the

points pillag up in the Welsh- man's favour, there was a brood- about the poker- Ing menace faced Kid as hande held low he waited for the opening.

was

Suddenly, every heart pounding wildly, For, leaping forward"Ilke a savage, the Kid Basham's had sprung Inside guard. brushing side that stab- bing left as if it was a straw.

Belting and whaling to the ribs the Kid bored in, that basilisk mask of a face glaring straight into the eyes of the smiling, upright Welshman.

But, despite this reverse, Johnny Basham remained un- quelled and

unabashed. One of the last of the old Corin thlans he was quity unconvinced that this

Yet, dynamo rampaging

even amid the uproar, from the East End was his

even as the pain from the Kid's whiring fists clawed at his red- master.

dened riba, Johnny Bashom's smile stayed fixed on his fea-. tures like some ghostly puppet's grin.

And

the

and

yust EC, under Victorian dome of the Albert Hall, on the night of November 19, 1920, the Welsh wonder, his

relaxed classical features smiling, stepped blithely Into the ring once again against the one man he had sworn to beat the champion, Ted "Kid" Lewis.

The air was heavy with snake, pungent with the odour of humanity as, straight from the befl, Basham's shimmering left

Four D. Jones BY MADDOCKS~~

PUT MORE

VIGOUR INTO IT, LADS, WE'VE A

LONG WAY

TO GO

FERDINÁND

NANCY

I'M WORKING

MY WAY THROUGH COLLEGE

AT 18

WORLD CHAMPION AT

ALAN HOBY

The Kid's furious punchos send Bashơm sprawling

on his back.

Once more that East End roar In ̧ the 15th round the Kid rezored through the smoke haze uppercut the impetuous Basham when. In the ninth round, the so hard the latter tripped and

over a whistling fell backwards, Kid brought left hook.

The blow clobbered Basham flush on the Itps and a wicked tear crept like a tury, red canal from the corner of his mouth.

Yot the Welshman was still able to slide away on the balls of his feet, melting magically out of distance.

Still smiling

by

But, in the 14th round. that great domed half became o bull ring. For, revived at the. end of the 13th round champagne poured down the back of his neck. the Kid past ed Basham's ribs and cheek- bones with a ceaseless håll of hooks.

··

Basham's left eye puffed up. Then, a terrible, crunching swing burst his left ear.

There wa.

squirming, strangled cry from the Welsh- man, a cut -off sob of agony before, strained and trembling, that Axed smile zippered back in place.

Then, As the shouting died,"

And now Johnny Basham was just AS swiftly, fighting for his life. He tore in Busham, recovered his wits and danced mixing it with, the terrible Kid. And onco His temper in shreds, he sought, easily out of range. again that pinking matador left to destroy his cold-lipped exe- started to play on brow and nose, culloner before he himself was checks and mouth,

But now, as the rounds peeled hewn to fattore. off, a subtle change began to, But such brawling, street-alley this absorbing clash slugging were meat and drink to colour between the artist and the killer. the wily Lewis,

BRICK BRADFORD

ALARMI WVRAIE DOEN DISCOVEKBO!

19 THIS THE WAY

YOU PLANNED IT # "THOSS-DOORLE WE

ENTERED STOFF

I'M WORKING

In the 16th he swung his meat-hammar right to Basham's cracked car again and again.

In the 17th and 18th the same Dear, bolted raw, had swelled into

a hideous scarlet cauliflower.

Johnny Busham still

through the tog dulling brain.

the the

*

Page

British team going to World Student Games

Landon, Aug. 21,

The British train of sihloles and fencers, will be going to the World Student, Gomes in

Sófa, Bulgaria, as żcheduled.

An industrial arm today pre- scaled a cheque for £400 to enoble them to charter a sub-

ahone known song, his memory lingers stitute aircraft in place of that hia on providing a thin bul|run by, an airline that has gone unbroken thread with the glorf-} into voluntary liquidation. ous past, Clutching the горов,

Charles Wenden, treasurer of Welshman struggled up at

There will never be another the British Universities Sports count of six. Desperate, retreat Ted "Kid" Lewis. Down in Board, said today: 'We had to ing across the ring as the Kid St. Georges-in-the-East where find another £450 to pay for a closed for the kill, ho shot he was born and across the new plane and we just hadn't straight right to Lewis's jaw. pond amid the gleaming, souring got the money."" *

It was a beautiful punch, but, skyscrapers of New York, they the Kid shrugged it off as con- still talk of the Kid ... of his

The balance of £50 has been temptuously as if it was a y rip-roaring, roof raising style, covered by donations from well- Then for the last time--the his limitless stamina, and his wishers and other University

supporters-Reuter. champion coolly threw that unconquerable will to win. thundering right cross, and But, of all the fight he had Basham went as grey as death. in the rings of the world, the As the Weishman sagged back gresiest was his second clash on his heels two left books with Johnny Basham when, flashed out fast as light. : fer one Immortal evening, ali

The first spun Basham round the forgotten arts of boxing like a black-and-white top. The were paraded in a golden, gIR= second ellmaxed what the right tering flow. had begun-toppling him to the floor for the final count...

ever

Stamina

And it

the was then, in greatest welterweight battle seen in Britain, that the Yet at the Welshman, ahead more acutely observant among on points, simfled

the "the ringside watchers noticed clung to his paints lead like a that for the first time during drowning man to a lifebelt: “

The whole fery course of the fight, that strange cerle smile was no longer on Bashay's Hps.

As the 19th round came up there was a gulp of pity in many of the spectators' throats. By an ironic twist it had For there at bay stood Johnny transferred itself to the paper- Dasham, his eyes almost closed, white face of the Kid as, arm acknowledged the his ear and · mouth torn and uplifted, he gashed, but his fighting ardour cheers of his exuliant fans ... undimmed.

Today poor,

gailent Johnny Basham is dead. He collapsed and died at his home in New- part, Monmouthshire, in 1947, He was 30.

Retreat

Out once more shot that impeccable lett. Out flashed the Incredible amilie.

But Lewis, lusting for the kill master of all the arts of aggrG- vated assault, already had the scent of victory in his nostrils.

As cool as an ice-pack, the Kid smashed a right cross to the jaw before crashing home a paralysing left hook-the classic punch combination.

Bashamn, oblivious to the dervish yell which rocketed up to the roof, staggered and fell squatting glassy - cyed the

on

And Ted "Kid" Lewis, the finest fighter, pound for pound, this country has ever produced?

The Kid, who won one world two life, three British filles, Empire titles, and three Euro- tities, as well as carn- Dean ing--and spending ~ £500,000 -be used to live at the rate of 21,000 a week--is still a vílat part of the London scent.

At 66 he is in excellent health and has a wave and a smile for everyone. He works in flims. Ho canvas,

has been morrled 44 years.to his Yot as every man in the hall, American wife, Elale, and he including the Prince of Wales, has a son, Morton, who pro- rose, up one man from their duces "commercials" for TV. gents the Invincible, spirit of And, in the words of the "well

THINK! SEE DAYLIGHT. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHERE IT LEADS TO

WE MUST HAVE.CUMBED

MILES

ESCAPING UP THE FIERY FURNACE FUNNEL.

I SHALL NEVER LIVE

IT DOWN

A DEAD END

HOP

Bý Mik

London Express Service).

Dai Rees-wins

Ryder Cup

NEXT TUESDAY: captains' match

The China Mail begins another special sports series entitled SENSATIONS. OF SPORT

CHESS

By LEONARD BARDEN

「

Here, is a problem by E. J. Livshalte. (Chess, 1980); White to play and mate in two moves.

anter London Express Bersion-

Wentworth, Aug, 21,

Dal Hees, the British Ryder Cup captain, beat his American counterpart. Jerry Barber by one stroke in the professional golf battle flimed for American Television here today.

Rees had a round of 74 against the 75 by the little bespectacled American who will dead his country in the Ryder Cup amich against Britain in October.

Rees' share of the prize money was £1,000, Barber received

£750-Reuler.

Laver beaten in final

Kutzbuehel, Aug. 21. Roy Emerson (Australia) bent Wimbledon champion Rod Laver (Australia) 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 0-0, 6-2 in the final of the mon's singles in the Austrian Lawn Tenala Championships here to- day.

Laver and Emerson beat

Pierre Darmon (Franco)", and Lagi Legenstein (Austria) 8-0, 3-6, 10-8, 6-0 in the final of the men's doubles -Reuter,

נ'

Sheaffers DUTCH BABY

PEM

Ben Fer fler

THE BOLD HEW PEN DESIGNED EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEN

The Sign of

Top Quality

MY WAY TO

CAMP

TERAGON, BANG

BEBAK YOUR NOCK)

ALARIA

THAT'S

AND SO IT

By Ernio Bushmiller

By Paul Norris

FARH TAPWRATH ZOOMKES

IN GYIKE ASTA, WITH HER SNIPRA VILICHE WEAGUE,

DIRTINGING BY ROTAN KADARM

LÄNDER IN ROTAİ NO:- -*-*-**-

SWISSAIR

PEMESAN

Convair Jets Storting Tuesday September 12.

Now...

PEPPERMINT

AERO

Delicious

PEPPERMINT

Clavour

The Fastest Film

in the

World

DUTCH BABY

Powdered wholerik

DUTCH BABY

EVAPOPATED MILK

always Rich, Fresh and wholesome!

Solo Diza‹ibutors

THE FRIESLAND TRADING CO., LTD,'%

HOLLAND HOUSE TEL. 38048,

POPULAR PUBLICATIONS

This is Hong Kong The Hong Kong Stary

SOAP

WORKING MY

WAY TO THE

MOVIES

"PET JON JON

BNSHOT YOR

DUGHTA

RAID

WAIT!

$10.00

10.00

Chinese Creeds & Customs Vol. I

18,00

Chinese Creeds & Customs Val, li

18.00

Chinese Creeds & Custoins Või. III

18.00

Baby Book

25,00

Exprosi Annual

10.00

Report Annual

5.00

1.00

Ten Points About Pearls

·1.50

1.50

$4.50

ILFORD

Rupert Magazines

Points on Judging Jade ....

Judging

Giles Annual (1960)))

Hong Kong Business Symposium Gombol Annual (1960)

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST LTD.

HONGKONGL

On Sale At

KOWLOON