A bit of stuff for Wayne Barker;
Wayne was a friend of mine, we had same manager, boxed out of same gyms, same shows, sparred hundreds of rounds.
He was a real character, he left home when he was 12 years old and went living with the travellers. All though we were friends he would spar as if it was a fight, it was a personal thing with him, he would head but, bite, throw you on the floor, then afterwards he would want to go to the pub across the road and talk about football and the girl he was with the night before!
You never knew where he was, he would always go missing, next thing you would find out he was in Strangeways, then he had escaped and was in Caracas, Venezuela boxing Fully Obel who was world number 3 Middleweight contender, then he would walk in the Gym and want to spar!
In between all this I would bump into him in Nightclubs in Manchester dancing with two girls, yes two not one! Then I heard he was in a gang fight in Wythenshawe with a load of hoods. Next thing He's boxing another World contender Ted kid Mann in Atlantic City, he got disqualified for head butting his opponent! He also had a respectable fight record, having represented GMP as an amateur (yes GMP) he ran off ten victories and a draw from his 1st eleven fights
After boxing he ran all sorts of business, from scrap iron to car sales, to nightclubs, a building company, a carpet fitters and a restaurant. He also had some success as a boxing promotor, Manager and trainer and he revived the Anglo American sporting club all be it at the Midland Hotel and not the Piccadilly, he trained some good boxers from scratch namely Prince Arron who went on to win the British Title, however Arron and Wayne had departed company at that stage.
Wayne was a live wire, a real character who lived his life to the full, he would have a go at anything and he tried everything, I will never forget him, too young to die at just 52 years old.

Gavin Stirrup