First Mount Evans Title - 1950.

So we are nearly five years on from the original post.

It's an appealing bill on paper; though the Northen promoter went a bit OTT billing the Northern Championship in London. Clear signs of the Leeds-Bradford clique with Morrell, Baldwin and young Colbeck. (Was Colbeck ever young?)

Only now do I notice the great discrepancy between the bill and the write-up. Colbeck defeated Kidd. So they mangled the bill for some reason. At the time they were desperate to mirror boxing's serious structure. But you couln't imagine an important boxing bill being rejigged like that. The excesses and the rejigging annd the northen title would all have combined to make it look not very serious at all.

Norman would have been sure of his claim that this was London's largest venue. Sir Atholl must have seen that and got his dander up. The rest is history. He ditched Harringey for Kensington Gore.

I love the linguistic trivia, thanks Peter!

This poster mis-spells his name.It is Mountevans(one word).One interesting peice of info he was one of the few British people to speak Norewegian and knew King Haakon VII.Also buried in Oslo.

His grandson the present Lord Mountevans was the 688th Lord Mayor of London and also speaks Norwegian!

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TIME, TIME, TIME GOES BY SO FAST...STILL NO ANY SINGLE PHOTO OF THE MOST HISTORICAL BELT - THE ORIGINAL LORD MOUNT EVANS BELT FROM THE 50s.

Hi Anglo. There was also a European title fight on that bill, 100 mins no rounds.

Good solid bill though.

If Max Crabtree had done that we’d be up in arms: A British championship bout with no rounds. A novelty format for the title ! Very poor. And 75 minutes. ... what’s that all about?

Yes it appears that Colbeck kept the old Mountevans belt and it became a different title in name. Not that any fan would've got close enough to spot that.

In the early 50's you can find some really interesting stuff, all local promotional activity around title changes and challenges. Late 1952 - early 1953 especially with the welterweight titles.

Thanks all.

Promoters-don't you just love them.

I was happily cocooned in Newcastle, believed everything that I read and now you spoilsports have told me that it wasn't all true !

And now it gets really silly. Two Champions both in Aberdeen but two promotions.

Here is something odd. This is where Murray won it.

Strange because he won it on a DQ.

Looks like it had been a grudge series as well

As I was re-reading this I noticed the images of older Colbeck with belt. By that time he was long-term European Welterweigtt Champion. so that would be a different belt, not British Lightweight.

Yes as time goes on we are finding more evidence of title changes and different champions among a lot of the weight classes during the early to mid 1950s.

Here is a bit of evidence and he did beat Colbeck that night.

I think it is probably made up Bernard. I don't recall ever seeing Bernard Murray listed as British Welterweight Champion.

Just re-reading this thread, it struck me that on the post by Ruslan dated Dec 2 2018;on the bill Relwyskow for Sept 2 1952, Bernard Murray was described as Welterweight champion of Gt Britain.

I have posted before that Murray was one with the ability but never held a title.

Is this title a genuine fact or a Relwyskow "make believe"?

In 1971 they used a Mountevans belt to represent the European Middleweight title. Later in the decade they had another belt constructed (The one Mal Sanders was photographed wearing).

Hi Hack, that last photo is how I would have expected Norman Walsh to look in the early to mid 60's.

Go back to the photo of the champions and there, Walsh looks like he did about 1950-2 time.

I don't know what happened to Norman Walsh's Mid-Heavyweight title but it must have been damaged or misplaced shortly after that photo was taken. Because in the mid 1960's they ended up using a different belt to represent that championship:

Another early sighting of the 1950 Mountevans lightweight title, sent in by Main Mask

Hi Hack, you said that you thought that the photo of JP champions was taken sometime about May 61 to July 63.

I agree that this ties up with the belt holders, but I am amazed at how young Norman Walsh looks.

Les Prest saw him after I moved away, can we ask for his opinion?

Another photo of Jim Breaks with original Lord Mount Evans Belt.

Ernie Baldwin and his Lord Mount Evans Silver Belt

Hack, thanks so much for your kind words, appreciate. Yes it is a mystery of how Breaks got that belt, and yes in fact he was lightweight champion in the 60s. I think there are at least two options. Number one he borrowed belt from the real owner (I am assuming Colbeck since it was lightweight) or may be Alan sold that gorgeous silver trophy to the promoter who was running title which Breaks won.

Magnificent research Ruslan, with good evidence to prove your point. So there was a different physical belt prior to the ones we normally associate with Mountevans champions. I'm especially surprised to see Jim Breaks wearing it in the 1960s. We all know that Breaks' predecessor wore the later belt. So I wonder what was the occasion for Jim to be wearing this. Well done Ruslan. The question now to ask is when were the new Mountevans belts introduced? Go on Ruslan, you can do it. Well done.

By the way you can add multiple images and text to one post to save adding lots of follow on individual ones.

Hi Ruslan. Ernie Baldwin was not the British Heavyweight champion in 1957. I think at that time Bert Assiratti was , but it was disputed. He had fallen out with the promoters.

Baldwin did hold the title again for a while in 1958.

That looks like a great bill by Relwyskow , I would like to have seen that.

George Kidd v Bernard Murray would have been very entertaining.

Walsh v Garfield would have been a bit tasty too !

On this photo Breaks is wearing ORIGINAL Lord Mount Evans Silver Belt.

My opinion is that wrestlers who won belts in the early 1950's kept their trophies. BUT there was ONE real Mount Evans Silver Belt which was still in use during 1960's. I don't know who of the champs gave (or may be sold) his belt to promoter to use it for new champions.

this photo compilation speaks for itself.

of course Colbeck and Busfield photos aren't of the best quality BUT I am pretty sure those belts were properly inscribed, if anyone has a close up images of Morell-Mountevans belts THEY DO NOT BEAR MOUNTEVANS NAME ON THEM.

We can see that Baldwin had that belt in 1952 and he kept it even in 1957, which makes it clear HE OWNED IT. I am not sure if Ernie even was a champion in 1957, BUT he had physical championship belt emblematic of the championship.

Here is the Featherweight belt (Have also added it to the Gallery):

Here's a photo of ORIGINAL Lord Mount Evans Silver Belts dated 1950 (Colbeck) or early 1950's.

I reckon the photo was taken between May 1961 and July 1963. I see what you say about Colbeck holding the Mountevans belt in 1950 Ruslan but what evidence is there that it wasn't the same physical belt in the photos?

Good stuff Ruslan. A few months ago I came across a photo of George Busfield being awarded the Mountevans belt at Featherweight. He defeated Bernard Murray at Earl's Court in late 1950.

My point is that the belts from these photos aren't original Lord Mount Evans Belts from 1950.

Sorry Ruslan, Alan Colbeck was too dour for me to take to. A good wrestler but as has been said before "a little lacking in Charisma !"

The dream match followed later with George Kidd v Johnny Stead. My all time favourite bout.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing, much appreciated. I understood it that they planned it to be Colbeck v Stead, but it was Kidd. Later same year Colbeck had defense v Stead, so they finally had their "dream match".

The first bill shows Colbeck v Stead, but the write up states that Colbeck defeated George Kidd. Something wrong there.

Also something wrong on the bill and newspaper dates on the second bill, unless the editor of the paper was clairvoyant! If I could forecast things 3 days in advance I would be a millionaire by now!

With regard to that St James' bill, I saw that entertainment. a very good night.

A wrestler that i always liked, Johnny Stead won by 2-1 to take the belt.

Other results were Gill beat Coverdale -disq

England beat davies Disq

Walsh and Johnson, two local men beat Purvey and Anderson 2-1.

Incidentally the first tag partner that I saw Norman Walsh with was Jim Anderson.

Special Thanks to Mr. Mike Hallinan.