Knockout price for car boot find

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The vintage gloves were found at a north Wales car boot sale by a keen collector of sporting memorabilia

Boxing memorabilia belonging to champions Randolph Turpin and Bruce Woodcock, bought for £50 at a car boot sale have sold for £1,100 at auction.

The sale at Rogers Jones Co in Colwyn Bay realised much more than the estimated £400.

Turpin, who trained at Abergele, achieved world fame by defeating Sugar Ray Robinson for the world middleweight title in 1951.

Woodcock was a British, Empire and European heavyweight champion.

The vintage gloves were found at a north Wales car boot sale by a keen collector of sporting memorabilia.

He paid £50 for the tan leather gloves and a collection of photographs, newspaper cuttings and boxing programmes relating to the two stars in the 1940s and 1950s.

Randolph Turpin's signature

Randolph Turpin's link to north Wales is his choice of Gwrych Castle near Abergele as his training camp before his fight against the seemingly invincible Sugar Ray Robinson.

After retiring, he owned a hotel on the Great Orme in Llandudno, but later he hit hard times and he took his own life aged 37.

The autographed glove was obtained by a member of the castle workforce - the Turpin glove is dated 1951 and the Woodcock glove is dated 1950.

The gloves were passed down through the man's family and were sold at the car boot sale by a relative.

Auctioneer David Rogers Jones said it was amazing that they had been found.

"I can remember being taken to Gwrych Castle by my parents," he said.

"It was a very grand and inspiring place but I had forgotten it was used as a training camp for boxers.

"I imagine Turpin chose to go there to get away from the pressures of all those adoring fans, but in fact many of them followed him there to watch their hero," he added.

Turpin was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in New York, and in 2001, exactly 50 years after his victory over Sugar Ray Robinson, a statue of Turpin was erected in Warwick town square.