The Navy has produced many great boxers

By Miles Templeton

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of presenting a talk to the Royal Navy and Marines Ex-Boxers Association at their annual reunion. The Royal Navy championships were first held in 1903 and they have produced some wonderful individual fighters over the years including Terry Marsh, Seaman Tommy Watson, Bugler Larry Lake and Randolph Turpin, who all became professional champions.

The peak years of naval boxing occurred between 1978 and 1983 when the senior service won 44 individual combined services titles and six consecutive team titles, beating the very best that the Army and the RAF had to offer. Of the 10 weights up for grabs, Navy boxers won nine championships in 1981 and eight in both 1978 and 1982.

At the time, the naval team was coached by Tony Oxley, very much a revered figure to this day, as he rebuilt the team after it had been at a low ebb. He was fortunate in having so much available talent, but he certainly knew what to do with it and how to create a strong team spirit.

The team photograph shows the squad in 1979. Standing on the left are Vic Christopher and Cliff Storey. Vic was a bantamweight and had been around for some years prior to this, having been a five-time Navy champion between 1972 and 1976.  Storey was possibly the best flyweight that the Navy ever produced, and it turned out some good ones, winning Combined Service titles in both 1978 and 1979.

The next two fighters are Phoenix Jacobs and Terry Marsh. Jacobs was twice Navy champion and Marsh, who won his first Navy title within weeks of joining the Royal Marines, went on to really great things, winning three ABA titles and then, as a professional, the British, European and IBF light-welterweight titles. He is one of the very few fighters who, after a career at the top level, retired undefeated. As a naval boxer, he has few peers.

Seated are Merv Lescott, Steve Willis, Wayne Green, Roy Greenacre and Tommy Taylor. Apart from Lescott and Green, the other three were all present at the reunion and what great company they were.

Willis was a great rival of fellow naval great, Brian Schumacher, who will be remembered for his two contests with Tony Wilson for the British light-heavyweight title in the late 1980s. Steve was the better man as a naval middleweight, and he won four Navy titles and was Combined Services champion in 1980. Wayne Green, a regular England international, won a record nine Navy titles and seven Combined Services championships.

His great Navy rival at welter and light-welter was Paul Kelly, another naval great, who, along with Tony Bevel, plays a major part in keeping the ex-boxers association so active and successful. During the 1978 Commonwealth games, Kelly took Mike McCallum to a close decision and the Jamaican later said that Kelly was his toughest ever opponent.

Roy Greenacre was the heavyweight representative and one of the few submariners to win a Navy title. He won five Navy titles at heavyweight, having also won at light-heavy in 1975. He also won two Combined Services titles. Tommy Taylor will be remembered by many as a very capable pro, boxing out of Hednesford, between 1980 and 1988.

He won the Midlands area light-heavyweight title in 1986 and boxed a British title eliminator against Mark Kaylor the following year. He won the Navy and Combined Services titles every year between 1977 and 1980.

Others not shown in the photo, but who made their mark during this period were super-heavyweight Keith Ferdinand, the 1983 ABA champion, light-middleweight Nick Croombes, who won a silver medal at the 1982 Commonwealth games, and bantamweight Paul Evans.

Another great little character and very much a stalwart of the association is Pony Moore, whose career was coming to an end by the late 1970s but who had been a stalwart of the team when it was struggling and was the 1970 Navy flyweight champion. A great bunch of lads.