Page 189 - RAPTC Year of 2019

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The dummy
As part of the show (towards the climax), we threw a dummy figure off the top of the tower. It emerged from amongst a scrum of bodies and looked as if a soldier had fallen during the display. The character was dressed in denim (as we all were) and stuffed with towels to make it extremely rotund. While preparing our ropes and places, Major Goulds appeared and said: “We should name the dummy Blacknell and write this in capital letters on its left chest.”
I imagine that Major Goulds had done some baiting of Captain Blacknell over the lunchtime period; most likely about his figure and that he was carrying a bit too much weight. Our turn for the afternoon shows duly arrived, and everything went exceptionally well. In the end, the dummy came off the tower followed by our shouts of alarm; followed by a loud gasp from the broad audience below as the model dropped into the dirt with a loud thud. The audience relaxed and laughed when it became clear it was a dummy.
Major Goulds walked towards the dummy and announced to the audience that this was a very fat soldier, and he ought to take his name. The model had landed face downwards, and Major Goulds turned it over with his foot. Several others advanced on the dummy interested in what Major Goulds was up to. The figure was turned over and on the name label, which was shouted out by a few of the audience, was Goulds.”
Blackie’s revenge (or nearly)
As part of the standards required to pass into the APTC the students, that was us, had to qualify in second class boxing. Boxing had not been a problem on our Advanced Course because we had some top-class boxers who would let us do whatever we wished in the ring with them. Sadly, the boxers attending their Advance Course did not get selected for our Probationer’s Course, but most of them participated in another advanced course and subsequently selected. To our distress, there was an advanced boxing course held at the ASPT just as our assessments were programmed.
So, it was decided by Captain Stanley Blacknell, known as Blackie, that we were to be assessed and paired with members of the advanced boxing course. These boxing students were the best in the British forces throughout the world. On the first day, I was paired with a Royal Marine champion who used me like a punch ball for three rounds but having survived I had qualified.
Among the boxing students, there was one with an outstanding reputation and record. He Was a French-Canadian Heavyweight boxer, reputed to be part red Indian, who had won the BAOR championships several years running, each time his opponents had never lasted more than one round. In those days, Canadian forces could enter the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) sporting completions. The heavyweight boxer’s name was Pierre, and we soon christened him Powerful Pierre. He was an impressive physical specimen and weighed about seventeen stones.
At the end of the day, one of the pairings were announced for the following day, and Captain Blacknell was delighted to inform Gary Fuller that he was to box Pierre. We, as a course, were concerned. Not all at the Army School of Physical Training (ASPT) was too bothered about Gary’s welfare, and recognised by all that the proposal was barbaric and could only lead to severe injury to Gary, or even worse.
That night in the barracks, I tried everything I knew to persuade Gary to opt-out of the next day’s challenge. During our various training courses, Gary had a bit of a gimmick. When approaching the high bar on a difficult vault, Gary would pretend to trip up and claim that his knee had ‘gone.’
The next day I was to be his second in my friend’s corner, and at every opportunity, I tried to convince him that he was in grave danger, to no avail. The time of the bout arrived, and I was still trying to dissuade him from taking an active part in the proceedings. Gary seemed supremely confident, calming my fears, and saying this killer in the opposite corner would give him a good hiding. I still was not convinced. Word had got around the school about the fight, and those not on essential duties had flocked into the boxing room in Wand-Tetley gym. Not all present wanted Gary to trip up and hurt his knee, to no avail.
At the Bell, Gary moved quickly across the ring and proceeded to batter Pierre with punches of all descriptions. Obviously, Gary was very agile and disciplined through his basketball prowess and together with his long reach, and hands like shovels proceeded to give Pierre a comprehensive thrashing over the three rounds. In all the boxing I have seen I never seen a more thorough beating than Gary gave to Pierre that day. It was not just the blows that landed, but the whole experience that left Pierre bewildered, humiliated and loss of his confidence and self-esteem. The entire boxing room spectators stood in a state of shock that the impossible had happened and they were there as witnesses. Although we as a course were delighted at the outcome, I still thought I was dreaming and imagining the whole thing.
Blackie looked pensive at the entire scene and eventually gave his congratulations to Gary. What next, I wonder? At the end of our course, we were given our postings; Gary the Great Britain basketball player was given an assignment to the King’s Regiment in Ballykinler in Northern Ireland. The King’s Regiment was a famous boxing battalion but had not won the Army championships since 1957 seven years earlier. The King’s requested a boxer from the Corps to be posted to them, in which Captain Blacknell had nominated Gary. Gary’s influence with the regiment won the Army Championships in which he also boxed for them as a Light Heavyweight or Heavyweight depending on the opposition. He later took 10 Regiment RCT to be army champions on a later posting.
Within a year or so of our course joining the Corps, Gary was having success as an individual boxer. He won the Army and combined services Championships and qualified for the Amateur Boxing Association semi-final. I cannot remember who the opponent is was, but I distinctly remember the Referee; it was our Blacky, Captain Stanley Blacknell who was a first-class Referee and officiated at the highest level in ABA matches.
This bout was televised. During the fight, both boxers were regularly knocking each other to the canvas. Towards the end of the round, Gary was on the canvas, and Blackie was counting him out. In between each number, Blackie kept saying, “Get up, Fuller.” Gary eventually got to his feet at the count of eight and managed to knock his opponent down. At this point, Stanley stopped the bout and awarded it to Fuller because he was too strong for his opponent. That is how Gary qualified for the final, where he became runner up.
I do not think Blackie was ever again to be selected to referee in the ABA championships.
P.S. We were to learn that Gary’s father had been a professional boxer and that Gary had been a Leeds schoolboy boxing champion as a teenager.