Well, I survived three rounds with John Houston and lived to tell the tale! Of course he could have murdered me if he'd a mind to but I did actually manage to blacken his eye and pick up the Best Boxer Award from the Referee as well, more for age and guts rather than skill and speed I suspect!! What the audience didn't hear was Ref Ian Honeyford saying "Well done Pop" as he handed over the trophy!

Thanks must go first and foremost to John for laying on such a great evening of boxing (well if you don't count my feable attempts). Further afield I must thank Lt-Col Rupert Jones and 4RIFLES for all their support for the evening and also Lt-Col Paul Uden of 7RIFLES. Capt Rob Cutler led the contingent from 4RIFLES Boxing Team, who were the real stars of the evening, collecting two standing ovations from the crowd, all 450 of them. It was great to see Cpl Ferguson, moonlighting from Headly Court, on such great form and it was all we could do to stop "Woody" getting into the ring! It was great to see the Riflemen chatting with so many audience members about their experiences and it was a real priviledge to have them with us.

Next I must thank the Buglers of 4&7Rifles under both their Bugle Majors for their contribution. We had a cracking start to the show with the fanfare Light Division Assembly which made the audience stop their talking and "Listen in"! They did wonders for my morale by sounding The Advance before I came in (well it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up anyway) and then accompanied the Regimental March as I made my entrance. Talk about making some noise!

The Brass Quintet from the Waterloo Band played in the ring as the audience arrived which heralded the fact that this Rumble was going to be pretty special. Also we would have been lost without the Provost team from 4RIFLES who looked after security for us and made sure that everyone could relax and enjoy the show. Thanks also to Brig David Homer, our Top Brass for the evening, for his few words at half-time and adding lustre to the evening. Thanks must also go to Cllr Bernard Stone, the Mayor, and the people of Wallingford for turning out in such numbers. It was the biggest turnout in seven Rumbles and you really got behind your local Regiment!

Finally thanks must go to all the other fighters for putting on such a great show for our cause; the commitment and support from Club members was amazing. We had some real thrills and spills and the whole thing was typified by the top-of-the-bill fight won in great style by Simon "Too Smooth" Welsh, harried all the way by his determined and courageous opponent Michael "Wreckin'-Ball" Rendall.

Early indications seem to be that we made £6000 for Care for Casulaties on the night from ticket sales and auction prizes. We don't know the size of the retiring collection yet as the buckets went straight back to RHQ in Winchester but I am sure we will know soon and I am guessing about £1000. I managed to bring in £2000 in personal sponsorship which takes us to £9000. So if anyone wants to help us to get to a round £10,000 please feel free to donate on this site!

Just to remind you, Regimental funds have paid out over £350,000 in grants every year for the past three years for our wounded and their families and we need to raise £1 million for the antcipated needs of the next few years. Help for Heroes (started by a Rifleman - well done Bryn) and all the other really great service charities are doing a wonderful job, but it is to The Rifles that our wounded and their families look to when their need just doesn't fit what the other charities are set up to do.

To those of you who have contributed already thanks for your donations and messages of encouragement which I really appreciated. Thanks again to John Houston and to John Pennycook, my original opponent, for both working so hard to prepare me for the fight. I enjoyed the bout tremendously and as midlife crisies go, it was a blast!

Swift and bold!

Simon