Bidders spar for Turpin's gloves; AUCTION: Boxing memorabilia.

Byline: Duncan Gibbons

THE gloves were off in a top auction house as rival collectors fought over a knockout collection of Leamington boxing legend Randolph Turpin memorabilia.

Phone bidders sparred with auction room buyers for the unique collection of programmes, photographs, newspaper cuttings and even a rare glove signed by the man himself.

Eventually going the distance was a mystery collector from Leamington who bought the lot for pounds 1,200 - three times the reserve price.

Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones, of Colwyn Bay firm Rogers Jones Co, declared: "The collection is going home."

The glove was one of a pair signed by the Leamington Licker at his Welsh training camp in 1951, ahead of his sensational world middleweight title victory over Sugar Ray Robinson at Earls Court in London.

The gloves and other items including a glove signed by British, Empire and European heavyweight champion Bruce Woodcock - were later bought from a car boot sale for just pounds 50.

Ben said: "Leading up to the auction we knew it was going to do well, you just get a feeling for how much interest there is going to be.

"A few people came down from Warwickshire and we had three phone bidders and the winning commission bid."

Turpin retired in 1958 with a record of 64 wins, one draw and eight losses but he shot and killed himself above his wife's transport cafe in Leamington eight years later over health and financial worries. He was just 37.

His 17-month-old daughter Carmen was also injured but she refuses to believe he was responsible.

Although born in Leamington, Turpin lived in neighbouring Warwick and, in 2001, a bronze statue of the boxer was unveiled in Warwick town centre.

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LEGEND... memorabillia from Randolph Turpin including a signed boxing glove went under the hammer