I play golf a couple of times a week with a group of mates and just about all of ‘ em has a nickname .

Among them are Wally ( where ’ s Wally ), Shirl ( looks like Skyhooks ’ Shirl ), Choc ( loves chocolate ), Bones ( slim-ish ) and yours truly ( mute ).

Sadly , a few of us don ’ t have any nicknames – so very sad !

Another group of folk who love dishing out nicknames as much as Australians , are those from the world of boxing .

When I began my scribbling career at the sadly departed Daily Mirror back in 1968 , the number one soccer writer was Tony “ Hotspur ” Horstead , a legend for his ability to snag a good story and compose it while Douglas Bader – ie : legless .

For those of you who have never heard of Sir Douglas Bader , he was a Royal Air Force flying ace during World War II , and is credited with downing 22 enemy aircraft , four shared victories and six probable kills . Which is remarkable for a man who lost both pins after crashing his RAF plane in 1931 but was allowed to re-enlist when WWII broke out . I digress ! When Hottie retired from writing ( but not whiskey ) in the late 70s , he kindly presented me with two of his coveted books on boxing – the revered Nat Fleischer ’ s The Heavyweight Championship and W . Buchanan-Taylor ’ s What Do You Know About Boxing ?

Nat ’ s book covered the history

of heavyweight boxing from 1719 until Sonny Liston ’ s massacre of Floyd Paterson in Chicago ’ s Cominskey Park on September 25 , 1962 .

Buchanan-Taylor ’ s ( wonder if they nicknamed him The Hyphen ) wonderful book , published in 1947 , informed readers all they needed to know about boxing from the bare-knuckle days up until , well , 1947 .

Well , anyways , back to boxing and the dishing out of nicknames .

The Hyphen ’ s book listed nicknames of boxers in the early days of bash for cash days in Ye Olde England . Just have a gander at these ! The Game Chicken ( Henry “ Hen ” Pearce ), and a host of nicknames derived from the pugs ’ occupations such - The Tailor , The Brewer and The Brothel Keeper ( just joking on that one ).

Other nicknames endowed to those who fought in the bare-knuckle era included James Burke ( The Deaf ‘ Un ), Tom Cannon ( The Great Gun of Windsor ), Stephen Oliver ( Death – ooh , scarey ) and Alec Reid ( The Chelsea Snob - wanker ).

Many of the great boxers who donned the gloves during their careers had nicknames which fitted perfectly .

- Henry Armstrong : Homicide Henry

( scarey ). - James Corbett : Gentleman Jim . - Primo Carnera : The Ambling Alp . - Bob Fitsimmons : The Fighting Blacksmith , Lanky Bob and Ruby Robert .

- Albert Griffiths : Young Griffo . - James J Jeffries : The Rocky Mountain

Bear . - Jack Johnson : Lil ’ Arthur . - Stanley Ketchel : The Michigan

Assassin ( again , scarey ). - Sam Langford : Boston Tar Baby . - Joe Louis : The Brown Bomber . - Tony Galento : Two Ton Tony . - Eddie McGoorty : The Fighting Fool . - John L . Sullivan : John L and Boston

Strong Boy . - Mickey Walker : The Toy Bulldog . - William Stribling : Young Stribling and the Georgia Peach .

Another interesting section of the book listed the ages of boxers when they went to that big square ring in the sky .

What really took my eye was that a fair few of those who fought in the bare-knuckle era , despite the hammerings they took over a multitude of rounds , lived into old age .

They included Jack Broughton who drew up the first standard set of rules for the sport − that a round would last until a fighter went down , with a 30-second interval between rounds .

The rules were applied widely in boxing until they were replaced by the London Prize Ring rules in 1838 .

Broughton was a very handy fighter , boxing trainer and successful fight promoter , a task he performed until his passing in 1789 at the ripe old age of 85 .

Other top class pugilists who lived into old age included John Gully ( 80 ), Tom Belcher ( 71 ), Jem Mace ( 80 ), John L . Sullivan ( 79 ), Jake Kilrain ( 79 ) and James J . Corbett ( 67 ).

The average life span for men in the 18th and early 19th Century in England was between 35-40 – and less than half of England ’ s population celebrated their 50th birthdays !

LOW MARKS : The Rugby League World Cup . Greece , Italy , Jamaica , Ireland , Lebanon - crikey , who next ? Vatican City , The Shetlands and Monaco !

HIGH MARKS : A Merry Christmas and a happier New Year to all our readers .

Joe ( the Brown Bomber ) Louis on the scales prior to regaining his world heavyweight title from Germany ’ s Max Schmeling .