WRECKING MACHINE

Alex Wade

Pocket Books, £7.99

Solicitor Alex Wade’s account of lawyers and other professionals thrashing it out in a white-collar boxing ring – and how the adrenalin-pumping experience helped the author to banish his personal demons – was published in paperback last month.

Boxing has always attracted the gentry. In the 1740s, champion prizefighter Jack Broughton introduced mufflers for his young gentlemen to wear so they would not damage each other’s faces and their own hands when they sparred at his gymnasium. Gentleman amateurs fought exhibition bouts in the 19th century, and some, like Captain Barclay, who wore doctored gloves, took things a little too seriously. ‘Professor’ – in later years they were all ‘professors’ – Ned Donnelly taught George Bernard Shaw.


Today’s descendants of Shaw et al are the white-collar boxers – lawyers, accountants, architects and others – who take part in three two-minute round bouts which, except for ‘championship’ matches, have no winner. Standing in the ring and surviving is at the moment considered enough. Of course, it will not be long before these bouts are judged, and there is already intense debate after the bout as to who ‘won’.


There is also a healthy tradition of writers who decide they will take part alongside the professionals and write about their experiences. George Plimpton quarterbacked the Detroit Lions NFL side in pre-season and wrote about it in Paper Lion. He also sparred with the great Ali.


Now in Wrecking Machine, Mr Wade combines the two and becomes a member of the Real Fight Club, which promotes white-collar bouts for charity.


He reveals how he has had a troubled life both as a lawyer and privately, with periods of heavy drinking and infidelity. A bust-up in a Cheltenham restaurant saw him lose one job, and he was clearly not cut out for others. Unlikely as it may seem, he found redemption in white-collar boxing.


Like Barclay and Shaw, at first he employed a private trainer, but went back to smoking, drinking and staying out with the boys. Finally he joined an amateur boxing club in Swindon, where he buckled down to the discipline of training.


Boxing is not to everyone’s taste, and white-collar boxing will not appeal to the purists either. The participants are often too old – and some might say lacking in skill - to be allowed in either the professional or amateur rings proper. They compete under a variety of noms du ring such as ‘Mad Manx’, ‘The Suffolk Punch’ and so on. The fact they wear 16oz gloves, that there is a doctor at ringside and there is a mantra, ‘This is white-collar boxing – no one gets hurt’, will not cure worries that sooner or later someone is going to get just that. If I read the last pages correctly, on one occasion Mr Wade fights with a nose broken a week earlier.


The principal justification for amateur and indeed professional boxing is that it teaches respect and self control, and Mr Wade agrees with this. There is always a fascination in all books about sport as to what will happen in the great final match-up. What also comes across is the camaraderie of boxers. Mr Wade’s experiences have taught him much about himself and, although it may seem a trite comment, have made him a better person.


James Morton is a former criminal specialist solicitor and now a freelance journalist