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| Terry Lawless obituary Boxing trainer and manager who produced four British world championsTerry Lawless, who has died aged 76, after a gall bladder operation, will be remembered as one of boxing's outstanding managers and trainers, having guided four fighters to world titles and watched two others become world champions after he had parted company with them. His was a career that blossomed in the 1970s and 80s, in a promotional alliance with Mickey Duff, Jarvis Astaire and Mike Barrett, when Lawless became one of the most influential and respected figures in British boxing history.His world champions were the welterweight John H Stracey, flyweight Charlie Magri, light middleweight Maurice Hope and the Scottish lightweight Jim Watt, but his name will also be forever linked with those of Lloyd Honeyghan, who became world welterweight champion after splitting with Lawless, and particularly Frank Bruno, whose career he moulded with painstaking care before they split prior to "Big Frank" winning his world heavyweight title at the second attempt in 1995.It can be something of a boxing cliche to say that a trainer treated his fighters like his own sons, but few can have offered more in terms of emotional and physical support. With his wife of 53 years, Sylvia, he would often take fighters into his own home before major bouts, reasoning that nobody was capable of attending better to their needs and that they would be mentally and psychologically honed to perfection by the time they stepped into the ring.Lawless was born in West Ham, east London, and was a boyhood friend and later best man at the wedding of Sammy McCarthy, who would go on to become British featherweight champion. Although Lawless never boxed himself, it was a friendship that inspired an involvement with boxing that saw him first work as a trainer and then, after completing his national service in the mid-1950s, take out a boxing manager's licence.He and Sylvia ran a shop in Leyton, which he continued to own after boxing, but it was the Lawless gym above the Royal Oak pub in Canning Town in London's East End where he achieved his fame, employing such figures as Jimmy Tibbs, Frank Black and George Francis to work as his training team and cornermen for the fighters he managed.Small of physique, quietly spoken and polite, Lawless had an encyclopedic knowledge of the boxing world, with a remarkable memory helping him assess fighters, their strengths and weaknesses. He managed dozens of fighters in his career and, in addition to his formidable list of world champions, he masterminded the careers of the likes of Mark Kaylor, Kirkland Laing, Gary Mason, Horace Notice, John L Gardner and Jimmy Batten, as well as many of more limited ability. For all of them, he was always a calm and compassionate cornerman whose concern was, above all, his fighters' safety.Lawless's greatest work was probably in developing the strong but raw novice Bruno into a fighter of world renown. His critics said he matched him too cautiously, but the regular appearances of Bruno on BBC Television ensured that his fighter earned a place in the sporting nation's heart even if the calibre of some opponents was questionable.His partner Duff spoke of Lawless in his autobiography saying: "Terry's attitude to opponents was simple. He wanted to impose a condition that they could defend themselves, but couldn't hit back. He worried about his fighters if there was nothing to worry about," but Duff conceded: "I don't think anybody could have done a better job in Bruno's formative stage than Lawless did."Their association ultimately led Bruno to his first crack at the world title, when he took on the then intimidating figure of Mike Tyson in Las Vegas in 1989, only to be stopped in five rounds. Although the Lawless-Bruno partnership had broken up by the time Bruno achieved his lifetime's ambition in winning the world title, the fighter was distraught at hearing of his former mentor's death.Watt, now a commentator with Sky, recalled a phone call he received from Lawless in 1975 shortly after Stracey had won his world title in Mexico. Disillusioned by the lack of success in his career, Watt was told by Lawless that he could achieve more if he signed with him. "That one phone call just completely changed my life," said Watt, who would win the world title four years later. "If Terry hadn't picked up the phone that day, I'm not under any illusions, I would never have been world champion."Lawless's career was not without controversy, and he had to face a British Boxing Board of Control hearing after details were made public by the Sunday Times and News of the World of a profit-sharing contract that existed between Lawless, Duff, Astaire and Barrett. The trade paper Boxing News wrote a front page editorial saying: "As a manager Lawless has a responsibility to keep his boxers winning: from this agreement, it follows that in effect he also has an interest in ensuring that the overheads of the promotions at the Albert Hall and Wembley [where the three promoters staged their shows] be kept as low as possible."Despite the huge wave of bad publicity, the BBBofC cleared "the Cartel", as it had become known, of any wrongdoing and what could have proved to be a stain on Lawless's reputation was formally erased, even if the damaging impact of negative press coverage was something Lawless and his colleagues were unable to escape.One of the last fighters Lawless managed was Joe Calzaghe, whom he took to a British title before Calzaghe signed with Frank Warren. Although he might have secretly harboured his own disappointments, it says much of Lawless that he was among those to contact Warren 12 years later to express his disgust over Calzaghe's decision to ditch his promoter and be self-managed for his final contest against Roy Jones Jr.Lawless lived his last years in Marbella, Spain, but had been in poor health recently, after failing to recover from surgery to his knees. He is survived by Sylvia and by their two children.• Terry Lawless, boxing trainer, born 29 March 1933; died 24 December 2009BoxingJoe CalzagheJohn Rawlingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Claims Five: No racing? Our five-point guide to coping If life seems flat without jump racing, there's plenty of other ways to amuse yourself until we get some live actionCheer up! Yes, I know there's no racing on, what with the snow and all, but that's no reason to wander round the house, kicking the skirting boards. If life seems flat without jump racing, there's plenty of other ways to amuse yourself until we got some live action. Five ways, in fact:1) Get ready for CheltenhamHowever much you think you've been paying attention to the jumps season, the Cheltenham Festival always sneaks up on you. Before you know it, they're going down to the start for the Supreme Novice Hurdle and you haven't so much as run your eye down the entries.This year, there's no excuse for it. Take some time out now to study the form for the big races, so there's no last-minute scramble to choose which horse to bet on. Obviously, it's possible to enjoy the Festival without having a bet, or at least that's what they tell me, but I suspect that this particular assertion remains in the realm of theory for you as much as for me.You don't want to be the last one to take sides in the great Kauto v Denman debate, and then plump for Denman just because his odds are slightly bigger and there's only five minutes left to decide. Go through their form now, so you'll understand exactly why Denman really is the one to be with and you'll feel clever when he wins, instead of lucky.As you'll see here, there are well developed betting markets on 14 Festival races already, so it's not as though you don't know who the likely runners are. And you probably aren't going to get many more significant clues because hardly any of these horses are going to have more than one run before Cheltenham. Some, like Poquelin, favourite for the Ryanair Chase, will not be seen again until the big day.The great thing about betting on these races now is that you'll be full of hope for the next two months, or at least until the beast in question gets a tendon injury.There are free online form books here, here, here and here. What are you waiting for?2) Get ready for the FlatSo maybe jump racing isn't your cup of tea, or you think it's impossible to find a winner at the Festival. Fair enough, you still need entertainment when the all-weather lets you down.Your time may profitably be spent poring over the form for this year's Classics, for which the latest odds are here. Again, it's not as though you're jumping the gun, because the most important clues are probably in the public domain already, at least as far as the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas are concerned. The trend these days is for horses to turn up at Newmarket without a prior outing. If they do have a prep run, it probably won't tell you much.Two-year-old form, race trends and pedigree are the key pieces of information you need to form a view about the first two Classics and they are all available now. Will St Nicholas Abbey be quick enough? Have we seen the best of Canford Cliffs? Can Criquette Head win the 1,000 for the fourth time? What do you mean, you don't know?3) Take pleasure in racing's historyIf, like me, you have sometimes bought copies of Chasers & Hurdlers, the enormous annual tribute to jump racing published by Timeform, well, this is your chance to actually read the damn thing. Alternatively, if your attention span won't quite stretch to that, there are masses of videos of the best races from years gone by, available on the website of the British Horseracing Authority and on YouTube.You can watch Arkle beat Mill House in the 1964 Cheltenham Gold Cup and then look back at Mill House winning the previous Gold Cup to understand how good Arkle must have been. The video will also make you thankful for modern standards of camerawork.You might also be thankful for modern standards of jockeyship after watching the 1977 Champion Hurdle.If you prefer the Flat, maybe you'll be impressed by this video of Nijinsky's Dewhurst, with narration by Orson Welles. Here you can watch Lester leaving it too late to make his challenge on the same horse in the Arc de Triomphe. If Paul Carberry had been on board, maybe he'd have said Nijinsky was ungenuine.Last year, many of you were impressed by Sea The Stars's victory in Paris, but if you want to see how a real horse wins the Arc, look no further than this ancient bit of tape. An ancient bit of tape is what they appear to have used to start the Derby in 1934. What a pity they didn't have in-running betting in those days.Just a few years later, Seabiscuit took on War Admiral in a match at Pimlico, near Baltimore. How funny that you can watch that race in full online but you can't see Denman's Gold Cup win from two years ago. Which brings me neatly to ...4) Do your bit for Racing For ChangeYou may have noticed a rather feeble list of initiatives announced this week by Racing For Change, following months of work, umpteen hours of committee discussion and the expenditure of a large sum of money. The idea was to come up with ways of improving the sport's popularity and we are told the good work continues, behind the scenes, which is just as well because the 10 ideas put forth don't amount to much of anything.The powers that be have not asked for your views and, for all I know, they may not welcome any input from the man on the Clapham omnibus. Still, it seems to me that they could do with your help because their own efforts seem somewhat lacking in inspiration.Never mind lobbing a few coins into some collector's bucket. Your charitable act this month should be to sit down and work out how racing can be improved. Answers on a postcard, please, to: 'Racing For Change', Racing Enterprises Ltd, 75 High Holborn, London WC1V 6LSIf you can't think of anything, feel free to borrow my hobby horse and tell them how idiotic it is that, while they flounder around looking for ways to promote the sport, it remains impossible to find a video anywhere online of Denman beating Kauto Star in the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup. In just two months, we're all hoping that the rematch will provide one of the great races of all time. What's wrong with whetting people's appetites by showing them what happened the first time?5) There's more to life than horse racing, apparentlyAfter the Super Bowl each year, a journalist called Greg Easterbrook urges fans of American football to spend the next seven months sorting out their lives and becoming better people. That way, when the NFL season rolls around again in September, they'll be ready to give it their full attention.For fans of horse racing in Britain, there is no off-season, unless you count Good Friday or three days every Christmas. It's always there with its daily challenge of maidens and handicaps, chasers and hurdlers, a never-ending game of "guess who's fastest". As any punter who's ever been flush enough to take a holiday will tell you, you dare not stop paying attention, because then that horse you've been following for months will win at 33-1 while your back's turned.So make the most of this intermission. Read that book. Redecorate that room. Take the kids ice-skating. Get a poker habit. If it achieves nothing else, it should at least show you how boring are the things that other people do instead of betting on horses.Horse racingChris Cookguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Manchester United stake all on £500m bond issue Manchester United are accustomed to selling themselves to the world. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |
City, Paulson finalize PGE Park deal The city and Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson have reached a deal to renovate PGE Park in order to accommodate a Major League Soccer team. The deal will go to City Council next Wednesday. feeds.bizjournals.com |
Federer storms back to see off Davydenko • Federer survives enthralling clash to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5• Battling Davydenko took dramatic first set with easeNikolay Davydenko, the smiling eccentric of this Australian Open, had little to laugh about after he blew Roger Federer off the court in the first set, lost 13 games in a row then fought back to nearly force a fifth set before succumbing to the cool genius of the world No1.But they both left everyone lucky enough to be there with a match to remember. Few could recall a contest of such fluctuations. It was the match of the tournament.Federer won 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 in 156 minutes to reach the semi-finals of a major for the 23rd time in a row, and remains on course for a possible showdown in the final on Sunday with Andy Murray, who plays the Croat Marin Cilic tomorrow.It was bewildering tennis, one of the best comebacks of Federer's career - not that anyone outside Melbourne Park would have known it, because of a peak-time TV blackout by the host broadcaster after the first set.• Serena battles through but Venus bows out• Kevin Mitchell: Australian TV viewers short-changed• Robson eases into juniors last eight• Murray finally has something to shout aboutWhat TV viewers saw before Channel 7 left the tennis was Federer falling to pieces in the face of Davydenko's brilliant serve and inventive ground strokes. What they missed over the next 90 minutes, while Channel 7 were showing the news, a magazine programme and an episode of Home And Away, was Federer replying in kind.Davydenko had lost 12 matches in a row to Federer before beating him twice in their past two meetings, in London and Dohar, and talked with conviction of doing it again here. For half an hour, it seemed he would deliver.Federer finally got his act together after going 3-1 down in the second set. He found his serve against at just the moment Davydenko's tennis fell to pieces. Then, when order seemed to have been restored, Davydenko broke back to 3-3. His timing returned, his energy levels rose and there was a gleam in his wild eyes. He even managed a smile between games, when he took a 4-3 lead in the fourth.Davydenko saved match point at 5-5 with a couple of astounding returns, on either wing. He continued to produce remarkable shots, one low backhand stop-volley leaving Federer stranded at the back of the court. But he missed sitters too, and Federer hung in long enough for the break, then served out for the match.Australian OpenRoger FedererTennisKevin Mitchellguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |