BY SOME quirk of coincidence, two boxing stories came our way at the same time.

The first is this photograph of Weymouth Boxing Club taken, we think, some time in the 1940s or 1950s.

We have no other information about the picture so if anyone could let us know more – put names to the faces, or let us know what the silverware was awarded for – we would be very grateful.

We have also been chatting to Sheila Jacobs, whose father Edward ‘Nip’ Oliver helped found the club with masseur Bert Lloyd and the then-mayor’s mace bearer, whose name escapes her.

Nip – so called because he was the youngest, or ‘nipper’ of the family – was the club referee and judge.

Sheila originally got in touch to talk about Melcombe Regis Bowling Club, which featured in looking back on November 8 and was where her father played bowls, but she also has vivid memories of her father’s time at the boxing club.

She said: “The club didn’t start off in Brownlow street but at a pub up the Nothe, not the tavern, because there was a bowling alley where they could fight.

“The boys were ever so good.

“Many of them came from poor families, as many boxers used to do, but they never got into trouble.

“I remember that one boy was really poor and Bert Lloyd went out and bought all his kit for him.

“He would even buy him fish and chips after training because he couldn’t afford them himself and was always hungry.”

Sheila also remembers the time when Jimmy Wilde, the first official world flyweight champion who was also known as ‘the Mighty Atom’, came down to visit the lads at Weymouth Boxing Club when she was a girl.

“He brought his Lonsdale belt with him and asked me to look after it because he was going out on the town with the lads and was worried that if he got a bit lit up he might lose it,” said Sheila.

“It was absolutely beautiful, all gold and enamelled and I was so proud that he gave it to me to look after.”

As well as his boxing, Nip was also a keen member of Melcombe Regis Bowling Club and used to spend a lot of his time there.

The groundsman at the time was Laurie Bell and Sheila remembers how people would compliment him on the excellent condition of the club’s bowling green.

“When dad and his friends went bowling they would take their balls in these funny little bags and we would call them ‘the doctors’ because they looked just like medical bags,” said Sheila.

“We would say ‘have you made a good delivery?’ when they came home.”

But Nip’s devotion to bowling also caused some disharmony on the home front.

“When they had visiting clubs they would take them out for tea and usually go to the Clinton Restaurant in the Clinton arcade which then linked St Thomas Street to St Mary Street.

They did good teas there that cost two shillings.

“My mum was put out by this because the ladies were never invited and in any case, they were not that well off at the time because dad was a stoker at the gas works and wasn’t well paid.

“Bowling was quite expensive because they had to buy a blazer with the club badge on, cream trousers and the right shoes, and mum would say that he was living a Rolls Royce life on a bicycle pocket!

“But she would still go down to the club when they played, take her knitting and chat to the other wives which she really enjoyed.”