Page 175 - RAPTC Mind, Body & Spirit

Officiating with the Army and CSBA
Having served for 25 years in the Army from 1973 – 1998 initially with the 1st Battalion Queen’s Regiment and then the Army Physical Training Corps, I thought I would share the experiences of being a long term Amateur Boxing Official and Referee and something I have continued to pursue since my discharge 20 years ago due to my continued passion for the sport and refereeing and judging.
It was obviously during this time serving and especially being with 1 Queen’s, one of the main boxing Regiments and Battalions in the 1970’s, along with the King’s Regiment and 10 Regt RCT, that I learnt my trade and I qualified as a Boxing Judge in 1978 with the Army and Combined Services Boxing Association and the Amateur Boxing Association under the direction of former Maj (MAA) Glyn Morris APTC.
From then on, I remained fully active and continually Refereed and Judged at hundreds of Army Boxing events at all levels from Inter Company to Major Army and CSBA Championships over the years in Germany (BAOR) and the UK, including a great high- profile event in Berlin in 1986 with the CSBA v US Army Europe. I then progressed on to the highest level of officiating within the Army and Combined Services, achieving Grade 1 Referee in 1992 and Referee Instructor and Assessor and subsequent selection as one of the first Military officials onto the England National Major Panel of Referees in 1997.
Some of the other Grade 1 Army and CSBA Referees also selected for that Panel were good and respected friends from the APTC and other Services such as Bob Price, Gary Dorrington, Andy Ruffley, John Berry, Ray Morley (RAF), and Mickey Norford (Royal Navy), some of who also progressed and went on to represent the Armed Forces at International level with AIBA.
Now on the England Major Panel, I was subsequently selected for and officiated at numerous National Championships at all levels including a number of Four Nations Championships from 1997 and as the WO1(SMI) HQ 2nd Division in York at the time, I registered with the Yorkshire Boxing Association and became fully active with the ABA of England on the civilian domestic club circuit. On discharge in 1998, I continued my officiating on that circuit. It was during this time that I refereed Nicola Adams in her very first bout as a young 15 year old in a Working Men’s Club in Leeds.
Despite being discharged in 1998, I still continued for a number of years to be selected for numerous prestigious Army events such as the Army Individual Championships.
All this allowed me to progress and be selected to Referee at the ABA National Senior Finals in 2001. Officiating with me at this prestigious high-profile event was a number of serving and ex serving members of the APTC. Also refereeing was Maj (Retd) Andy Fisher APTC, and officiating as a Judge was SSgt (SSI) Billy Macdonald APTC, who is now himself a top England National, International and 1 Star AIBA Referee; the computer operators were WO1(SMI) John Berry APTC and Sgt (SI) Brenda Berry APTC.
It was at this event that I refereed the bout between Carl Froch and Dean Frost. Froch then went on to win a Bronze medal at the World Championships that same year and then on to an impressive professional career and achieve worldwide fame winning multiple World Titles at Super Middleweight including the WBC, IBF and WBA titles. Dean Frost at the time was serving in the Army and had a continued and successful career with the Army and CSBA Teams.
I continued to be constantly active on the domestic and National circuit and was subsequently selected for assessment for EABA Referee in 2002. I passed which lead to being selected to officiate as an International Referee and Judge at numerous Four Nations, European Championships and tournaments all over Europe. My first International tournament with an England Squad was in Copenhagen in 2002 for an EABA International Box Cup where I refereed the then double Olympic, European and World Welterweight Champion from Russia, Oleg Saitov.
Ex WO1(SMI) Jack Goodwin APTC
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40 YEARS AS A BOXING OFFICIAL