GRANGE-based boxing historian Larry Braysher scores another victory with this extremely-well researched follow-up to his book, Boxing by the Sea.

While his debut work focused on the noble art's connections with the Winter Gardens in Morecambe, this book takes a wider look at the Bay's boxing credentials.

Entertaining as well as informative, the book covers every facet of local boxing through the decades.

The author interviewed a number of ex-professionals from the Bay area, including Bobby Day who had become an ABA champion in the early sixties. To pursue a professional career, he moved to London, where he recalls encountering the Kray twins, then noted more as boxers than gangsters and killers. But Bobby became homesick and disillusioned after losing the services of his manager who had been arrested for armed robbery.

Other boxers featured prominently include Alvin Finch, whose ring career was destroyed by an horrendous injury but who battled back to become a respected referee, and Alan Lamb, known in his fighting days as 'The Lancaster Lion', who came close to capturing the British Light Welterweight crown in a thrilling encounter with the then champion Clinton McKenzie.

Boxers from the Bay is richly illustrated, including many never before published photographs. Available from the author. Call 015395-35459.

ALLAN TUNNINGLEY