Bob Espie - boxing's 'blond bomber'

By Johnny Doak and Darren Crawford

MENTION the name Bob Espie in Ballymena and many people might recall him working as a doorman in some of the town’s best known night spots, but few would remember his exploits in the ring when the Cookstown-born light-heavyweight spent the Sixties fighting his way up the ladder to become one of the top amateur boxers in the UK and Ireland.

Guardian Sport caught up with Bob as he looked back on a career that saw him become a national champion before he went on to represent Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games back in 1970….

Born in the mid-forties in Cookstown, Co.Tyrone, Bob Espie first pulled on a pair of gloves at the age of eleven in the humble surroundings of the local boxing club.

“I had just started at the town school (secondary school) when I began to box. It was really basic, we just had a punch bag and a punch ball which was attached to the floor and ceiling. When the punch bag was hit a few times, it would have broken off and lay until someone repaired it.”

At the boxing club in Cookstown, Bob was trained by John McIlree and as the years progressed the two men built up a strong bond.

“I wanted to win each time I boxed, but to win for him was a really big motivation because I knew how much he put into training me. John and his wife only had a couple of daughters and he’d tell me that I was the son he never had.”

On leaving school, Bob trained as a motor mechanic but was always more consumed by training for the ring.

“I trained morning and evening. I was up and out training at 7 a.m. running in the fields below my mother’s house. She knew how long I needed to be out so when the time was done she would have come out and waved at me so I knew it was time to come in.”

Bob’s first provincial win was in the Ulster Junior Championships in 1962-63 before clinching the All-Ireland crown a year later. After winning at junior level, it was time for Espie to make his way at senior grade. The all-action light-heavyweight soon became a bill topper and was fighting on a weekly basis at boxing shows the length and breadth of the country.

“I fought almost every weekend. People who were running boxing shows used to contact the club in Cookstown to check my availability before organising their event.”

The blond-haired cruiserweight soon attracted the attention of professional promoters and Bob considered several offers to turn pro.

“Barney Eastwood was originally a Cookstown man, and I’d fought a few times at shows in Carrickfergus where he was then based. He wanted me to turn pro and he thought I had a good chance to make it as a professional boxer. I had the chance to go to England as well but I didn’t really want to leave home. I’d never been any farther than Belfast so England was a world away. A man called Coe McConnell then told me I could turn pro and not leave home but in 1966 I injured my ankle in training and was out for a year. When I was ready to return to the ring I had never had a pro fight and could still box as an amateur. After weighing things up I decided to stay as an amateur and aim for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1970. I was getting married as well so I had plenty to keep me occupied.”

A successful return to the ring saw Espie pick up Ulster senior light-heavyweight titles in 1967 and 1968 before going one better a year later and doubling up with an All-Ireland win.

“I fought a man called Mick Sheehan in the final in 1969. He was from Galway and we just hammered each other for two rounds. In the third we were in a clinch and he said to me,” Bob, I’m tired” and I said that I was too, but I managed to hang on for the win.”

In 1970, Espie was hitting the peak of his career at just the right moment and benefitted from training with a group of boxers at the Bosco club in Belfast.

“Coming up to the big championships I’d have always cut back a bit on fighting at shows and went up to Belfast for training. The facilities they had were marvellous, much better than what we were used to at home, and you got to spar with a bigger variety of boxers. I used to spar there with Billy Turkington from Doagh who was a well known fighter at the time.”

The twice weekly hundred -mile round trips paid off as Espie received international recognition after being chosen to box for Ireland against England. On a memorable debut, Bob brought the house down with a unanimous points victory over the new golden boy of English amateur boxing, Keith Drewett.

In front of a 4,000 crowd, debutant Bob showed no signs of nervousness as he set about the previously unbeaten Drewett with flurries of punches giving the Englishman little chance to fight back. As the contest drew towards a close in the third round, the local crowd roared the Cookstown man to victory in a grandstand finish which all but guaranteed his place in the Commonwealth Games team in July.

Descibed by Jack Magowan in the Belfast Telegraph as a “tremendous win”, Espie was hailed as “strong, aggressive and with the heart of a lion”.

Bob’s successful year continued as he retained his Ulster and All-Ireland titles. Dubbed in the press as the “blond bomber”, Espie beat Dennis O’Brien from Tramore to seal his place in the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games team and it was soon time for the real preparation to take place.

“We had a two week training camp in Cushendall in June. Since my foot injury, I couldn’t do any road running so I had to do that type of training on soft ground and I spent a lot of time running round the golf course in Cushendall.”

The Games were being held in Scotland for the first time and a new multi-sports arena had been built at Meadowbank just to the east of Edinburgh city centre where many of the events took place. For Bob Espie, the whole experience was one he remembered clearly.

“We were staying in a big school building with lots of other athletes and everyone trained and sparred together. The Games were an unbelievable experience. We would have gone to support Northern Ireland representatives in other events like the bowls and cycling.”

As for Espie’s own performance, he had left Ulster’s shores confident of bringing home a medal but his Games ended in disappointment.

“I told my mother before I left that I really felt confident of winning a medal. I’d fought all the top men in the U.K. and I knew if I got the right draw I would do well.”

A first-round bout against Stephen Thega from Kenya saw Bob go through after the referee stopped the contest in the opening round. His quarter final opponent was Nigerian fighter Fatai Ayinla who had been a silver medallist four years previously.

“Being drawn against two African boxers put me at a slight disadvantage as they were strangers to us, we knew nothing abut them. In the quarter final I thought I could outpunch Ayinla but neither of us was prepared to take a step back and he got the win. He went on to win the gold medal and fought at the Munich Olympics two years later.”

Although he may not have known it at the time, Bob’s boxing career was almost over. In 1971 he didn’t return to defend his All-Ireland title and decided it was time to call it a day.

“The Troubles meant that travelling to fights and training was a lot more difficult and although I was always really well looked after in Belfast and Dublin, it was a lot riskier from then on. My infant son was ill at the time too and with travelling back and forward to Dundonald Hospital there was very little time left for training. I had achieved more than I ever expected to when I started out, so I had no regrets about stopping.”

Bob’s pugilistic gifts weren’t lost though, as a number of years before he had taken up an offer after a bout in Ballymena Town Hall.

“I’d fought a big Fijian soldier who was based in the town at the time. Afterwards a man came into the changing rooms called Sammy Barr who owned The Flamingo in Ballymoney Street. He offered me a job doing door security but I explained that Ballymena was a long way from Cookstown. He was persuasive enough and I ended up working for him for over twenty years, long after the Flamingo closed its doors. Whatever events Sammy put on, I was there. I went on to work at the Adair Arms and other venues about the town.”

Bob’s employment as a car mechanic in Cookstown had come to an end when he moved to the Enkalon factory in Antrim and he was gravitating closer to what would become his new hometown.

“When I went to work in Enkalon, my wife and I moved to Randalstown. I worked there right up until the day the factory closed and then took a job in Gallahers at Lisnafillan and moved to Ballymena. I left Cookstown almost fifty years ago and have been in Ballymena for well over thirty years now.”

Bob still keeps up with events in the ring on television though doesn’t attend live events anymore. The large collection of mementoes from his boxing days at his home in the town alongside his assortment of newspaper clippings bear testament to the career of a man who was one of the finest amateur boxers in the country.1