Autobiography

ecome London ABA champion. Everyone in
our area seemed to have seen the bout on
television or read about it in the newspapers or
the Boxing News.
Our sporting lives were travelling in parallel,
him in boxing and me in football. It was
wonderful for us, bringing pride and
achievement into our lives for the very first
time.
I played for West Ham Boys for three
successive years between the ages of thirteen
and fifteen and was selected for every game
without missing a match. I was also picked for
Essex and London Boys and began to dream
about what the future might hold for me. I
could picture myself running out for the
Hammers at Old Trafford or Highbury.
One of my great regrets, and the reason I now
hoard every newspaper cutting from my life, is
that when I was a kid I didn’t continue to keep
every programme, poster and cutting from the
local papers. Now I keep everything that’s
written about me and my family. I think it is a
good way to diarise your life.
I remember riding my bike to school as a
fourteen-year-old when a complete stranger, a
man of about 40 wearing a grey cloth cap
typical of the time, suddenly called out, ‘Hey,
Goldie! Well done, son!’
He must have been at the match on Saturday,
when we beat East Ham Boys at Upton Park
and I scored two of the five goals. I felt ten
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