#32: ‘Fen Tiger’ by Bob Lonkhurst

‘Fen Tiger – The Success of Dave “Boy” Green’ is an official biography compiled and written by Bob Lonkhurst.

I was born in south London but when I was young my parents moved to Cambridgeshire and I ended up attending secondary school at Cromwell Community College in Chatteris. Sport, mainly rugby, was a big part of my time at the school so I spent a lot of time in the sports hall. At the entrance to the hall was (and hopefully still is) a large photographic portrait of Dave ‘Boy’ Green in fighting pose, wearing his Lonsdale belt. I was actually at school at the same time as his son and two daughters, so it was impossible to not be aware of his achievements.

I was, though, only aware of his famous world title bout with the legendary ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, as perhaps most are. This book was very enlightening in that I wasn’t aware of his popularity both at home and in London, with hundreds or thousands of fans regularly travelling to the Royal Albert Hall to see him capture British titles, nor how popular he was as a general sporting celebrity, regularly appearing on the British TV show ‘It’s A Knockout!’.

It was also very nice to read about the friendship which has developed between Green and Leonard since they fought.