Autobiography

my days playing football from the moment I
first kicked a bundle of rags.
I also enjoyed swimming almost as much as I
loved football, and we used to go with my
father. He was the type who said ‘You can do
it’, and would then throw us into the water to
prove it. Sink or swim. In the summer Ralph
and I would go to Wanstead Flats to swim in
the duck ponds, paying our twopence on the
bus and then swimming before sharing one
towel between the two of us.
Coming home on one occasion we only had
twopence between us. We caught the number
40 bus, which should have taken us all the way
home, but the conductor realised we were
going further than our penny tickets allowed so
he kicked us off and made two young boys
walk the length of Green Street to get home.
Sport turned our lives around; Ralph with his
boxing and me with my football. Until then the
only thing we had been successful at was
surviving.
Ralph won the ABA Schoolboy Championships
and went on to box for England and Great
Britain, and almost won a place in the famous
GB vs USA match at Wembley when Britain
won 10–0, with Billy Walker becoming an
overnight sensation after knocking out a
massive American heavyweight. It was the
equivalent of Wycombe Wanderers beating
Real Madrid 5–0.
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