Tribute to the exceptional Malcolm Collins
Gareth Jones remembers one of the great Welsh boxers, Malcolm Collins
MALCOLM COLLINS, one of the greatest names in the history of Welsh amateur boxing, died at his Cardiff home on February 4. He was 85.
An exceptionally skilful southpaw, he claimed silver medals in successive Empire Games, as the Commonwealths were then known, but was also the owner of a concussive punch, demonstrated by the fact that his five Welsh ABA championships were all won inside a round.
His ability was so exceptional that he was the only boxer included in the Wales team for the trip to Vancouver in 1954. Still a teenager, he halted Trinidadian Hollis Wilson in two, but was outpointed in the featherweight final by South African Leonard Leisching.
Duncan White, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sharm Mustafa and Oscar Wijesinghe are seen in this picture which appeared in The Ceylon Daily News decades ago. Duncan White, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Oscar Wijesinghe and M.A.M. Sherrif represented the four communities when they brought four scrolls to the Independence Square to be handed over to the Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake to be read for the public to hear.
After 400 years of Western domination Ceylon as Sri Lanka was known gained Independence on the 4th of February 1948. Heralding the occasion four athletes from the four corners of the Island brought four scrolls to the Independence square to be handed over to the Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake to be read for the public to hear.
Bill Windham, former Leander Club president );
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BORN in 1926, Bill Windham was educated at Bedford School (scholar) and Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he achieved a double first in mechanical sciences.
Bill’s career was spent with Arthur Guinness Son & Co (GB) from 1947 to 1984. He was also chairman of Skelmersdale New Town Development Corporation from 1979 to 1985.
Bill was captain of boats at Bedford in 1944 and first rowed at Henley in the Open Race for the Danesfield Cup for his university college in 1945.
He competed on many more occasions at Henley for Leander Club and was club captain in 1953.
In 1949, 1952 and 1953 he was in the Leander crew that won the Grand Challenge Cup and in 1953 he also won the Stewards’ Challenge Cup. A Cambridge Blue, Bill also competed in the Boat Race in 1947 and 1951 and won on both occasions.
But Smith suffered a shoulder injury and missed selection for the second test. “Because the players were allowed to keep their jerseys only at the second Test, when the team photo was also taken, Tony missed out on both, ’ New Zealand Rugby League historian John Coffey said. The Kiwis test proved his last game of rugby league in New Zealand. He married in 1963 and went to farm at Waiau, where the local rugby club s case to have him reinstated was flatly refused by higher authorities. Back then, any player deemed to have been a rugby professional was automatically denied a rugby union return.