Our November meeting was held on Thursday 3rd November and Allen gave a warm welcome to everyone.
NOTICES.
Drax
There is still availability on the trip to Drax on Wednesday 16th November. Thursday 17th is full.
Please let Rob know if you are interested as Barbara is on holiday at the moment.
Christmas Lunch Entertainment
Rob announced that the entertainment for our Christmas lunch will be Dave Barton of The 2 Pianos.
Trinity House Tour
Pat announced that the Trinity House Tour will now go ahead. Further tours are being arranged with dates to be confirmed in due course. If anyone is interested then please let either Pat or Dave Gibson know.
Question of Sport
Barbara was due to attend the Question of Sport Event organised by the Tigers Trust on 10th November, however, she will now be on holiday on that date. So if anyone is interested in going the ticket is being offered free of charge.
Stoke Away Match
Ernie is looking to arrange another coach for an away match this time to Stoke on 11th February. If anyone is interested please let him know as he is taking names.
Membership Cards
It was announced that some members have still not collected their membership cards. If you are one of those people then please see Barbara at our next members’ meeting.
GUEST SPEAKER TOMMY COYLE
Our guest speaker this month was Hull’s very own ex-boxer Tommy Coyle interviewed by Richard Beachell.
Tommy gave a very honest, open, funny and at times very colourful account of himself. Tommy described boxing as beautifully brutal and loved having a fight from a very young age. He told us he was expelled from school nine times and that boxing was to be his saviour. At one point while at school he was selling CDs and DVDs to teachers and making more money than the teachers were earning which made us all laugh. Tommy told us to our amusement that he went from the police station at Queens Gardens when young to ending his boxing career at Madison Square Garden.
His professional career started in 2009 with 30 fights, 5 knockouts and 5 defeats. He had 14 fights before his first defeat. Tommy felt he was limited in talent and not as good a boxer as Luke Campbell. He said Luke was a more gifted fighter than him. He played football at Hull City and Leeds United but loved the individuality of boxing as he described himself as a lone warrior and a control freak and said you only had yourself to blame for what happens when boxing.
When growing up his father made Tommy and his three brothers fight and whoever won went to bed last. Tommy always wanted his father’s approval when boxing. He was much disciplined in his training and never missed a session, however, he couldn’t stick to a game plan.
Tommy found it difficult to retire. Other than working in the family fruit and veg business he is now involved in Health & Wellbeing. He said helping in Hull is his way of thanking everyone during his career as you can’t thank everyone individually. He is also involved with the Homeless at Christmas and was behind the initiative to supply school uniforms for those children in need. He also supports kids who are outside the system.
Finally, Tommy informed us that James Smales is writing a book for him about his life. It should be a very amusing book if today’s interview was anything to go by.
Pat gave our usual vote of thanks to Tommy. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon. Tommy had us all laughing at his many funny and colourful stories about himself.
RAFFLE
Finally, we held our usual raffle with Tommy making the draw. £247.00 was raised from the sale of tickets and Tommy very generously donated £60 to the Senior Tigers.
Shirley Cormack
Tommy Coyle and Richard Beachell
