A WRITER has combined poetry with his life-long love of boxing in a collection of work dedicated to the noble art.

Mr George Jowett, who lives in Richmond, has had his collection of rhyming verse published under the title The Old Campaigners.

Several aspects of boxing are covered, from the referee and cornermen to former world champions and even the young woman who holds up the number cards between rounds.

Mr Jowett, who took up boxing as a schoolboy, devotes almost half the pamphlet to a poem about former middleweight Brian Graham from Middlesbrough. Blow by Blow tells how Graham overcame being electrocuted in a childhood accident to go on to become a professional fighter.

Mr Jowett said: "To my utter astonishment, The Spectator took a couple of my poems a few years ago and I thought I was going to be on the South Bank Show by the end of the year, but it turned out to be a flash in the pan."

He added: "My boyhood ambitions were to become heavyweight champion of the world or Poet Laureate - I seem to have fallen somewhere between the two stools."

The Old Campaigners is available, priced £3.95, from Castle Hill bookshop, Richmond, Ottakars in Darlington or post free from the publishers Redbeck Press, 24 Airedale Road, Frizinghall, Bradford BD9 4HH.