British boxing legend Randolph Turpin chose picturesque Gwrych Castle as his training base ahead of his historic world-title win over Sugar Ray Robinson
The great Sugar Ray Robinson was renowned for his lavish lifestyle. In his heyday, he splashed cash freely and was used to the best of everything. Luxury hotels, stylish clothes, fast cars and an entourage to rival Floyd Mayweather’s.
When he arrived in England to train for his maiden world middleweight title defence against Leamington’s Randolph Turpin in 1951, the quarters that had been arranged for him shocked Robinson. He trained and boarded at the Star & Garter pub in Windsor, which he later called ‘a dump’ in his autobiography.
‘The stairway creaked. The door handle was loose. There were plaster cracks in the walls. The two beds were like cots,’ he recalled. ‘Downstairs, the jukebox was blaring. And the customers were yelling and pounding their glasses on the bar. I never got to sleep until long after midnight.’
Afterwards, Robinson’s stay was memorialised by permanent graffiti scrawled on the gents’ toilet wall, which read, ‘Sugar Ray pi**ed here!’ Although other fighters trained there, Robinson’s stay became the pub’s chief claim to fame.
By contrast, Turpin trained for the fight in quarters fit for a king. Gwrych Castle, in Abergele, north Wales, is actually a 19th-century country house. But with its gothic style and embattled towers, it certainly looks like a castle.
Turpin first heard about the castle when Bruce Woodcock hired it as a training base for his second fight with America’s Lee Savold. After reaching an agreement with the owner, Leslie Salts, Randolph first trained there in 1950 for his bout with Eli Elandon.
‘It was a nice out-of-the way place and big enough for the public to come and watch,’ recalled Randolph’s brother, fellow pro Jackie Turpin. ‘The deal was, we were Salts’s guests and, in return, the public would pay him to see us training and sparring.’
Salts set up an open-air ring and holidaymakers and locals flocked to see the men train. After each session, Randolph and his sparring partners posed for photos and signed autographs.
Although Turpin trained at the castle for other fights, his preparations for Robinson there were the most memorable. Few gave Randolph a hope, so when he captured the middleweight crown he received huge acclaim. Britain, still recovering from war, finally had something to cheer about.
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| Randolph Turpin hits a speed ball in a ring pitched on the battlements of Gwrych Castle |
On 13 and 14 August, Gwrych Castle hosted a special weekend-long event to mark the 65th anniversary of the win.
David ‘Sparrow’ Harrison MBE, one of the organisers, told me, ‘So many people were there sharing their memories of Randolph. Many had watched him spar and knew him, and someone had bought a car from him. Others remembered using Turpin’s ring as kids to have the odd spar.
‘For the event, there was a ring set up where Turpin’s ring used to be, and boxers from local Clwyd ABC and Bristol’s Downend ABC put on sparring exhibitions. The Turpin family was well represented: over three generations were there. They were a wonderful, friendly group.’
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| Randolph spars with brother Jackie at Gwrych Castle as he prepares to face Sugar Ray Robinson for the world middleweight crown |
Two months after winning his world crown, Turpin lost the title in a return with Robinson in New York. Although his title reign was short, Randolph’s win over a prime Sugar Ray remains one of the finest achievements of any British boxer. It was also one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.
This piece by Alex Daley (first published in Boxing News on 1 September 2016) is one of 132 articles featured in the anthology Boxing Nostalgia: The Good, the Bad and the Weird. You can find out more or buy a copy here.
