The West Ham Boys’ Club which can be found nestling in the heart of the London’s East End, was founded in 1922 by a local man Captain Myres, MBE, JP. Captain Myres who sadly passed away recently, was with the club until he was 93 years old.
The club certainly took off in the post war years when boxing was booming, a mass spectator sport. Ronny Cooper became the clubs first ABA Champion 1948 and went on to represent Great Britain in the 1948 London Olympics. Then came London ABA champions Bobby Galloway, Bob Frost and Ted Warren, Ron Hinson became the clubs second ABA champion when he captured the Lightweight title in 1951 then two years later in 1953 his brother Dennis was also crowned champion, Ron Barton made it an ABA double that year as well as a bronze medal in the European Championships. Ron went on to become British Light Heavyweight champion as a professional.
But the best was yet to come and the Hammers finest hour came three years later, Ron Redrup and 18 year old Terry Spinks won the ABAs at middleweight and flyweight respectively six months later they boarded a plane to Melbourne as Olympic Competitors. While Ron lost his opening contest, Terry went on to achieve Gold medal glory winning five times to stand aloft on the winner’s podium. The Hammer’s golden boy later went on to become British Featherweight champion as a professional.
Although the hammers produced lots of London Champions during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s including Terry Gill, Ralph Charles, Danny Mongford, Graham Moughton and Jimmy Batten as well as producing boxers of the calibre of Jimmy Tibbs, Alan Smith and Jimmy Lavey they had to wait until 1980 for their next ABA champion and Mark Kaylor was that man, he also represented Great Britain in the Moscow Olympics. Then in 1986 the ‘Dark Destroyer’ Nigel Benn punched his way to the ABA crown and then went on to World title glory in the paid ranks. |
