BOXING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Carlton Theatre was packed to the doors by a wildly enthusiastic crowd for the quarter finals of the National Schoolboys Championships last Saturday. Nine of the Western Counties team qualified for the penultimate round.

These included two Teignmouth lads, S Willis, last year’s junior champion, now competing in the intermediate class, and S Clatworthy. Both had hard fights, and only came through on majority decisions. The chairman of Teignmouth Urban Council, Mr Frederick Morris, welcomed the boxers, who had come from distant places, and thought that the Teignmouth Club’s trainer, Fred Tooley, had a lot to do with the quarter finals being held in the town.

RUBBISH

The police would like to hear from any householders who may have received a call from two men offering to dispose of rubbish. They obtained £4 from a lady in Higher Yannon Terrace, saying they would remove some rubbish from her garden and take it away in a vehicle. They certainly removed the rubbish from her garden – but left it in the road outside her house!

DANGEROUS DECK CARGO

Last week, 70 four-gallon black plastic drums were washed overboard from the Kumba, off Ushant. They contain the highly dangerous formic acid, which can prove lethal if it comes into contact with the skin, or if anyone breathes in the fumes. 

GAS MAIN BLAZE

A gas main burst into flames in Bitton Park Road on Thursday last week. The exposed pipe was in the trench dug by workmen searching for a gas leak in the area. Paraffin warning lamps left around the trench outside No 91 are thought to have ignited the gas.

CHURCH’S 150th BIRTHDAY

St Michael’s Church is preparing to celebrate its 150th birthday. The present church was dedicated on October 21, 1823, the ceremony having been performed by William Carey, the Lord Bishop of the Diocese. The vicar, the Rev R G Folland, writes in the current Parish Magazine: ‘Our 150th birthday project is the restoration of the church roof, and the redecoration of the church exterior.

Work has already started, and eleven of the twenty two major slopes will be stripped down, re-felted, re-battened and tiled as soon as the concrete tiles are delivered. Thus we shall have restored at a cost of approaching £4,000 nearly half the roof complex. The other half can be left to another day.’

MEMORIAL SERVICE

The esteem in which the late Mr Reginald Brook Bullen was held was seen in the large attendance  at the memorial service at St Michael’s Church last Thursday.

In the First World War, he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps, and afterwards went into his father’s business as cabinet maker and undertaker, serving for half a century. He was always most dignified, most courteous, most efficient, always sympathetic, understanding, kind and helpful. Nothing was too much trouble for him. He was Parish Clerk for 25 years.

His entries in the marriage register were faultless, and his handwriting was firm, bold and clear. He loved animals, and was never happier than when he was caring for some sick or strayed animal. For quarter of a century, he ran the local RSPCA clinic, and was the vice-president of the Torquay branch. He never took a holiday. Year after year, he carried on with his work as undertaker, parish clerk and RSPCA worker.

THE ONLY TRAIN

The only train in England to run during Wednesday’s 24-hour strike was the Dart Valley Railway Company’s steam-hauled train between Paignton and Kingswear.

RIVIERA CINEMA

Assault; Countess Dracula; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Bedazzled.