"TNT Teddy"

Corporal Punishment

The Teddy Haynes Story

The Teddy Haynes Story
by Barry F Cordery

Originally published in The Southern Ex-Boxer ( The Croydon Ex-Boxers' Own Magazine)
Vol 2 No. 1 Spring 1991

I suppose that when you're the eleventh child of fifteen, you should start to look after yourself fairly quickly, but Teddy Haynes didn't begin to think about boxing until he was twelve years old, when he had to borrow his sister's plimsolls and vests.

Teddy was born in Birmingham on 26 July, 1936, to parents Lisa and Jack. Both his father and elder brother dabbled in the sport, but Teddy decided to take it seriously and joined the Morris Commercial Cars BC, where, although he lost his first fight, he learned his trade at the five stone mark. He later boxed for the Wolesley Club and also the Army Cadets, where he became the lightweight champion in the 52-53 season. Teddy established himself as a heavy puncher with a string of KO wins.

Coming from a large family, money was a constant problem, and lack of proper food kept Teddy in the feather and lightweight divisions. It wasn't until he joined the Royal Engineers when he was 18 that he really started to fill out and begin to realise his full potential.
Teddy said: "I always wanted to be a soldier, to be proud of my uniform and regiment, but most of all I wanted to fight for my country. So much so that he signed on for 22 years' (Could it be that the BMA has a case against boxing, after all?) He was stationed at Gillingham, and boxed for the local club, St Mary's of Chatham and rapidly became their hottest prospect.
His first fight was on 16 October, 1957, when he outpointed D.Willet, of Sittingbourne ABC, over four "twos" - a very good start, as Willet had been the Kent middleweight champion.

Midway through that year, Teddy represented the Midlands against the all conquering West Germans, in Birmingham. He was handicapped from the start: he had fought in North Wales the night before and had spent all day travelling back. Then, because one of the boxers had pulled out, Teddy, who was at welter, had to take on a middleweight named Buschmeirr. In the opening seconds Teddy walked on to a haymaker which put him down for a count of nine. Undeterred, Teddy fought back fiercely, knocking the German through the ropes in the second round and repeating the process in the third. He then subjected Buschmeier to a battering which forced the referee to stop the contest for a memorable win.

He went on to outpoint England internationals like Brian Thornton, Alan Grayley, Chalky White, and Roy Foot of Battersea in the semifinals of the Army Championships at the Garrrison Theatre in Tidworth. He then met Neville Axford in the final, on 28 March, 1958, at the Military Boxing Centre in Aldershot, where he suprisingly lost on points for only the second time. His other points defeat had been at the hands of Freddy Elderfield, four months earlier.
Neville hung on and tied Teddy up for most of the fight. "You hit me once, Teddy, and that was enough!" Axford eventually got the verdict.

Just three months beforehand, Teddy won a senior ABA title at middleweight at the Pier Pavilion in Herne Bay in spectacular style.

A report states: " Corporal Haynes did not take long to force victory over W. Lilley (Whitstable). Southpaw Haynes came out with two straight rights and a left hook to the chin to put Lilley down after only 30 seconds. He was unable to leave the ring for ten minutes."
It was at about this time that Teddy earned the nickname "Corporal Punishment", which was how Reg Gutteridge described him while he was despatching a victim.

Teddy outpointed another international named Jackie Woods, of Wolesley Boxing Club, before he had a five-month lay-off. Then, on 17th October, 1958. he had his last amateur fight, against J. McLaughlin, of Dublin ABC, which he also won on points.

In all, Corporal Haynes, E., service number 23117596. had 26 fights in a year and a day, including the five month break, in which he lost only two, and he defeated six international boxers along the way.

Teddy signed up with Tommy Daly and joined a stable which included Freddie Cross, George Cottle, and Barney Beale, and he had his first paid fight on 20 November 1958 in Birmingham,
against Stan Perry, whom he knocked out in the first round. A week later he ended that. year by beating Freddy Collins on points over six rounds, in London.

1959 saw him off to a bad start, when he was stopped in the second round at Leyton by Charlie Fordham, but in February he had three contests, all in London. The first, against Peter Anderson over six rounds, he won on points. He then stopped last-minute substitute Mick Davis in the fifth round of a scheduled six before going on to outscore Maxie Beech, again over six, at Shoreditch, in a bout with both boxers suffering bad cuts. This was something which was going to plague Teddy throughout his boxing career.

Although enjoying his sport, Teddy wasn't exactly making a lot of monev. He had to compensate by doing a string of "manual labouring jobs". After slaving away in a Ministry of Works position for a time, he tried his hand in a betting shop before settling down for seven years in the printing trade in Fleet Street.

He only had four fights that year - all in Birmingham. After stopping Barry Burke in four, he had to retire after after two when a clash of heads with Dave George opened a nasty gash over his left eye. But he forced Colin Aldridge of South Emsall to take five counts in the first round and three in the third before applying the coup de grace later in that round. The next month saw a change of fortunes again, as Teddy lost his last fight of the year by being disqualified in the third round against Tommy Power.

Teddy was getting a bit disillusioned now. Purses weren't too clever, and he was continually having to take fights at short notice, and so his training suffered as well. No doubt Tommy Daly did the best he could for his lad, but he didn't have the influence with promoters and matchmakers that some other managers enjoyed.

In Januarv of 1960, Teddy travelled to Newcastle to take on a rough, tough fighter, Simba Rose. Although he stopped Rose in the third round, Teddy suffered cuts to his eves once again, and because his bout was last on the bill, he had to forego treatment and even a shower to enable him to catch the midnight milk train back home.
Trainer Ernie Mills tried to patch Teddy up a bit while the train was rocking along, and fellow-boxer George Cottle did his best to help, but conditions weren't exactly ideal.

He was then matched against George Alridge for his Midlands middleweight title three weeks later, but Teddy didn't particularly want that fight so soon, for two reasons. His eves hadn't properly healed, and he wanted to get married to his sweetheart Christine. However, the fight went ahead.
Teddy took the early rounds, but lack of preparation caught up with him and he took two counts of nine in rounds five and six. He was then retired because of the wounds around both eyes being re-opened. He was fed up, and it was over a year before he boxed again, but what a fight!

He wanted to be released from his contract,but his manager preferred him to see out
the last six months. Three fights were arranged:in the first he came in as a late sub against
Neil McAteer over eight at the NSC. Both boxers slugged it out for over seven rounds,
putting each other down before Teddy succumbed to a last-round onslaught to be counted out.
The crowd showered the ring with "nobbins". and which totalled an incredible £133, a record.

He then outfought Terry Downes' sparring partner, Johnny Berry, over eight three months later, and in November in his last fight for Daly, as a late sub again, he knocked out Maxie Smith in the first round at the Cafe Royal.

Jim Wicks now managed Teddy, and things began to improve. Wicks had more experience with promoters than most British managers, and the boxer now had enough notice of forthcoming fights to be able to train properly (at the "Thomas a' Beckett ), and his wages more than doubled.

His first contest was a rematch against Tommy Berry, and Teddy again won over eight rounds, but this time his win was so resounding that Tommy never fought again. Unfortunately, Teddy, broke a bone in his left hand, and Jim Wicks took him to the well-known sports physician in Park Street, Dr Tucker, and Jim also paid all the bills, a fine example of the man's sincerity and dedication to his boxers.

Teddy had three fights in '63, losing to Willie Fisher in the fifth in May, and stopping Brian Langman and Joe Bell in the fifth and fourth rounds respectively.

In his only bout at the Royal Albert Hall, he knocked out highly-rated Johnny Gamble in the first round in front of a packed house, as both Brian Curvis and Vic Andreetti were also on the bill. Due to a mix-up, Teddy fought last that night, instead of going on first, and he figured he must have done fifteen rounds of shadow~boxing before he unleashed himself on the unfortunate Gamble. It was a nastv moment, as Johnny was out cold for ten minutes, and spent the night in hospital, after which he was retired by manager Eddie Thomas. Orlando Paso was the next victim, being stopped in two rounds six weeks later.

In May, at the Midlands Sport Club in the Civic Hall, Solihull, Teddy again fought for the Midlands middleweight title, against Wally Swift, and this time it was a different story as Wally was being punished when the referee stopped things in the fifth round. Teddy held the title for four years without having to defend it once - not a good advert. for the British Boxing Board of Control.

Teddy went overseas to Johannesburg in August that year to take on the South -African strongman, Gert "Hottie" van Heerden over ten rounds.
Hottie had a fearsome reputation and proved his high rating by hammering Teddy to defeat in three rounds. However, Teddv bounced back, and in December destroyed Streatham's Roy Thomas in one round at the Manor Place Baths. On 3 February, he met the Scottish middleweight champion, Ian McKenzie, at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon, and comfortably won on a first-round KO. Incidentally, this was to be the last promotion at this famous venue for 22 years

Four months later, our hero made his one and only appearance at the Empire Pool, Wembley, and celebrated by knocking out Joe Bell in the third round.

Things started to go wrong now, and in a shock result at Walworth in October, Teddy had to be rescued in the second round from the hard-hitting Willie Hart. Although Teddy felt that he might be nearing the end of the road now, he took one more fight to round off the year and knocked out the Leicester boxer, Jimmy Assani, in the opening round at Manor Place Baths.

Early in 1965, he was once more matched against the ex-0lympic bronze medallist, Wille Fisher, to whom he had lost two years earlier. This also took place at the "Manor" but alas, revenge was not to be, and the fight was stopped in the fifth round.

Teddy decided that the time had come to quit, at the age of 29. He had been a professional for seven years and had had 34 fights, only four of which went the distance, and which, incidentally, were all won.

He opened a cafe in Peckham, and later a hardware shop in Bermondsey. He also dabbled in football, being the official trainer for the Fisher Athletic FC, before opening a ladies hairdressing saloon with his wife in September, 1966 at the Rye Lane Bowling Centre.

Teddy now has interests in a couple of companies. and has a 26 year-old daughter, Tracey who is an established beauty therapist, and a 24 year-old son, who is a prof essional golfer, whom we will all soon hear a lot about. Teddy also runs two public houses, the "Prince of Wales" in Ruby Street and of course the "Henry Cooper" in the Old Kent Road, where he chairs the monthly meetings of the Uppercut Club of Great Britain.

If any of you fight fans ever fancy going over a few old rounds with "Corporal Punishment", Teddy Haynes, ex-Midland middleweight champion, won't be hard to find.