Fisticuffs

[RogerB]

Doing a bit of research for the Lost Pubs Project website brought up an old local pub in Dartford called the Masons Arms - shut for some years now. In the day when I could see straight and my hands didn't shake so much I was part of 2 sucessful darts teams in the Windmill, Dartford. One night we were playing an away game at the Masons and a huge fight broke out amongst the customers with tables and chairs flying everywhere. It was probably the biggest non football ruck I have ever witnessed in a pub, something like the old wild west saloon brawls that virtually ended up in the street outside. I should hasten to add that it was nothing to do with us and we didn't get involved, in fact to my knowledge I have never thrown or taken a punch in a pub in my life, yet.

I also remember sitting in the Windmill once and a guy came in and for some private reason started to punch the living daylights out of another guy who just sat there taking it. When the punches stopped he looked up and said "if that's the best you can do you'd better f*ck off now" and carried on with his pint. The aggressor looked stunned and promptly left. A treasured pub moment.

Any other punch up memories out there...

[hopwas]

Any other punch up memories out there...

Too many to mention memorable punch ups.

I'll be back after I get back from Birmingham later today.

Hoppy

[hondo]

cctv pictures just in

Attachment 122

[oldboots]

I obviously haven't lived, I've never seen a big pub fight, I'm the one under the table.

The closest I got to being involved was a time I was going to an upstairs bar when five blokes rushed past me and when I got to the door at the top I had to step over the guy they'd just bottled, still that was in Southampton.

[runningdog]

Any other punch up memories out there...

I'll say. I bet you saw this coming MrB, but then I'll not be the only one. Years ago, 1980's I should think, I'm just running on memory here, there was a pub called the Rossmore Arms, just outside Poole. It was a nice looking psuedo-Tudor sort of place, from the outside it it look a bit upper-market, genteel even. Wrong. Inside it could be the pub from hell.
It was during my Guinness days, they did a decent pint of the stuff so I was often there lunchtimes. Trouble was, the Rossmore was in the middle of council-estateland, smack between two rival areas, they argued and fought at the drop of a hat. More of a problem were the travellers from the site a mile or so away and their rivals from another estate about two miles up the road. Many of these guys were bare-knuckle fighters and serious ones at that. The locals were hard, the travellers harder, the boxers harder still. Add the police and students from the WallyColly nearby and something was always in the air.
Round one was during a darts match, the visiting team contained a son of one of the boxers. They were too good for the locals, white-washed them, won the gallon as well. Some of the locals followed the lad into the carpark, what they intended I don't know but in the end they beat him up. It was 8-1 or 3-1 depending on whose side the teller was on. The lad, it seems, gave a good account of himself. The police took him home, told everyone not to do anything silly, then went away and settled down to wait. The landlord boarded up his windows.......

Sorry about this but I've got pop out, will regale you with Rounds 2 and 3 later

[aleandhearty]

cctv pictures just in

OK. Here's a challenge. Can anybody name the film? I couldn't enlarge the thumbnail without it blurring too much, but is that Ronald Reagan in the days when he was compos mentis?

[RogerB]

I can't even see a thumbnail!

I thought he appeared as a newspaper reporter in the Bogart boxing movie The Harder They Fall but a quick scan of the Internet Movie Data Base website doesn't back me up.

[Conrad]

Well I have no idea what the picture is of, don't think it is Ronnie though looking at it in a higher res:


As to bar fights, sadly been in pub where some lass was glassed, have to admit I kept my nose out so no idea what that was about (Dave was there as well), and back in my student days I was evicted from the union bar for sort of starting a fight (I side-stepped as someone tried to give me a vigorous push).

Edit: Click the thumbnail to see the larger size image.

[oldboots]

OK. Here's a challenge. Can anybody name the film? I couldn't enlarge the thumbnail without it blurring too much, but is that Ronald Reagan in the days when he was compos mentis?

I thought it might be James Stewart in Destry Rides Again, but looking at it a bit closer it may still be Ronnie

"the president's brain is missing" Reagan or perhaps Robert Ryan in one of his many westerns.

Of course it could be Running Dog having a fine old time in his USA days

[RogerB]

Ah. I can see what you're all on about now! . I do like my old westerns but no idea on the pic at the moment.