Elky Clark “Posthumous Award”
William ”Elky” Clark was born in the Glasgow’s east end boxing hotbed of Bridgeton on January 4 1898 into a non- boxing family but given the close proximity of Bridgton’s National club, run by George Aitchison (father of legendary Scottish ring coach Joe Aitchison) to young Clark’s home it was almost inevitable that the young Elky would develop an interest in boxing. For example, when Elky was just fourteen years old, famous American former world welterweight champion, Aaron Brown AKA ”The Dixie Kid” fought and was outpointed by future Glasgow bookie Dan Flynn in May 1912 in Bridgeton. It was events such as this that whipped up the young Clark’s own desire to become a boxer.
Incidentally, the boyhood nickname of “Elky” came from the fact that the future boxing champion used to habitually act as a lookout, hence he was christened “L-K” by his boyhood chums during their mischievous games.
Managed initially as a pro boxer by James Morton, Elky’s first two paid bouts in 1921, a stoppage loss and a ten round draw with the same opponent, Alec Boyce, in November 1921 gave little indication of the glory to come. He showed one of his great strengths, an ability to learn from defeats, by finally outpointing old foe Boyce in February 1922 in Edinburgh. Clark, who lost 12 of his 46 bouts with 20 knockouts in a six year pro career, was an enigma, a puzzling personality according to the late Joe Aitchison. He recounted in a 1988 interview “Elky Clark, in full flow in the ring was a daunting prospect for any opponent, but outside the ropes he was so shy that he used to carry a pipe while doing roadwork on Cathkin Braes and elsewhere, and then stop and pretend to “smoke” the pipe until passers-by had disappeared. Yet, according to top English boxing referee, Eugene Corrii (who officiated at some of Clark’s bouts), “Elky Clark was an almost faultless ring stylist, a wonderful judge of distance, possessing great footwoork and great stamina…”. The last point by referee Corri was of one of Elky’s greatest assets, whilst most of his opponents would tire as the standard 20 round championship distance progressed, he grew stronger and MORE effective as the bout went on.
Indeed Joe Aitchison opined “If Elky had fought American Fidel LaBarba in New York’s Madison Square Garden in his 1927 world title bid over 20 rounds not 12, he would have probably become the first Scottish winner of a world flyweight title…”. Proof of this can be seen in the fact that some of Elky’s best championships wins came in, or near, the 20th round. Witness his acquisition of the British flyweight title by stopping Englishman Kid Kelly in London in round 19, and his double European flyweight title wins in 1926 over Frenchman Francois Morrachini in, both over 20 rounds.
Incidentally, in the programme for the Peter Keenan v Louis Romero fight programme at Firhill, Glasgow on September 6 1951, Elky (then a renowned boxing journalist) nominated Morrachini as his toughest ever opponent, why? because Morrachini was the ONLY opponent that he ever fought who could match his own trick of growing stronger as the 20 round distance progressed!
Similarly, when England’s Kid Socks tried to take Elky’s European title at London’s NSC in 1926, the red haired man from Bridgeton stopped Socks in the 17th round. Another noted Clark ring style feature was his teeth jarring uppercut, with which he stopped fellow Scot from Lanarkshire, Jim Higgins twice in Scottish bantamweight jousts. Again, when Elky fought LaBarba in 1927 he was the first Scottish boxer to contest a world title at New York’s Madison Square Garden; and the first Scot to have a USA title bid broadcast on American radio in 1927.
Elky himself never made any claims that he deserved to get the 12 round points verdict against LaBarba, but Joe Aitchison firmly opined, “Elky had suffered a bout of pre-bout food poisoning and the American’s refusal to let Clark wear his special double gum shield, and the short, (too short for him) 12 round distance did him no favours either”.
Again, Elky must have felt the ring gods were against him when his new manager Tommy Colquhoun told him he was being paid the scandalously low sum of £500 for challenging LaBarba for his world title, a paltry purse even in the 1920′s for a world title challenger. Similarly, the London based National Sporting club added insult to injury by insisting that because Elky hadn’t been able to defend his British flyweight title due to world title commitments, the NSC bosses took back his Lonsdale Belt, despite the fact that the Bridgeton man had held it for three years and defended it twice. As National Sporting Club historian John Harding said “An insensitive and callous gesture…”
Consequently, having lost the sight of one eye courtesy of LaBarba thumbing him in their 1927 world title clash and being further disillusioned by the NSC Lonsdale Belt return episode, Elky Clark retired in 1927 aged 29.
However, an articulate, literate and personable family man Elky did not become one of Scottish boxing’s sad post fight career stories. On the contrary, he became a successful publican at his ”Lonsdale Bar” in Glasgow and ultimately a highly successful boxing writer up until his death at his Caernavon Street, home in November 1956, with the Daily Record newspaper. Famous American ring historian, Nat Fleischer, rated Elky Clark as number 6 in his ten all-time great flyweight ratings, whilst another American ring historian, Herb Goldman rated Elky as being number 10 all-time best flyweight boxer.
We can argue about the relative merits of these numbers but one thing is beyond dispute, that Elky Clark was one of Scotland’s greatest ring men.
Text by Brian Donald
