This story is the fifth episode of the “Blake’s progress” saga and follows on from the story Farm Girls and Blake’s fight with Terri Brooks. It tells a bit about what Peggy and Blake got up to between April and June 2022. It is based on the emails Peggy sent me and is her own account of events, told in her own voice.
I would have loved to have stayed a while with Sian but our schedule didn’t allow it and, besides, on Sunday morning Blake and I were both licking our wounds following our respective defeats the day before. Riley had to get the train south as she was due in college the next morning so we said our goodbyes to the gang and left around 11am. We dropped Riley at Piccadilly Station and headed for the airport and our afternoon flight to Paris. We had a week of sightseeing and relaxing before we got back into the squared circle.
I hadn’t planned to return to the ring on this trip, it was meant to be all about Blake laying her ghosts. But word soon got around about my activities in Spain and at Sian’s farm so it came as no surprise to find that, in Paris, Eva Pavard had arranged fights for both of us. I had a chance to get to grips with legendary wrestler Clara Aveline. Blake’s opponent was something of a surprise. Instead of the French woman we had both expected she found herself boxing former CLAWS league and senior champion Lorraine Carter. Lorraine and her family had move to rural France in the early 2000s and, although she had continued to fight at CLAWS, she had also fought at the Ligue Française de Combat Féminin or French Female Fighting League (the FFFL) as it was known to the English-speaking world.
Both fights took place the Sunday after we had left the UK. The venue was a quiet country house some miles out of the city. A ring had been set up in the gardens, close to a very enticing pool, and was surrounded by a collection of chaise lounges and sun beds. There were only the two fights on the card and our audience was a small, select audience of FFFL veterans. Both fights were filmed using a simple two camera setup but I had no doubt that, under the agreement between the FFFL and CLAWS, the resulting film would be sent to Paige Rodriguez for processing, just as the ones from the NBFC were.
It was a warm sunny afternoon and it was decided that Clara and I would fight first. Clara favours fighting in the nude and, given the temperature and the company, I had no objection to that, so we entered the ring as nature had intended. Like Jay Marchant, Clara is my age. Unlike Jay she favours a no holds barred, submissions only catfighting style that, if I’m honest, is more up my alley than the more formal CLAWS rules. We agreed to fight for 30 minutes with unlimited falls unless one of us failed to beat a 20 count.
I knew very little about my opponent’s recent fighting history other than the fact she’d been knocked out by Ellen Shaw at CLAWS six months earlier in a brutal fight that she seemed on track to win. I’d seen the video and was frankly stunned by Ellen’s performance. Clara had been vicious and there had been a lot of blood which seemed to cause the gentile, blonde English rose to display a primeval side I’d never seen. The fight ended with Ellen smothering our Clara while literally shredding the French woman’s pussy. I was very glad she’d never behaved like that when she was in the ring with me.
I was pleased to see that Clara, like me, had shaved her nether regions. Her hair was shoulder length, chestnut flecked with gray and tied back with a scrunchy. I preferred my curly ginger locks to hang loose, something I would come to regret in a fight where hair pulling was allowed.
On paper Clara and I were very evenly matched but she was a tough bitch and, somehow, always seemed to have the edge in this fight. My big boobs have always been my weakness, it’s the main reason I never boxed, and, boy, did she make them suffer – I couldn’t wear a bra for days.
I quickly found myself first one, then two and then three falls behind. Clara was definitely a wild cat. It wasn’t just my tits taking a beating and several times I was grateful for the 20 count and those extra few seconds to gather myself after a particularly savage throw or slam.
I fought back and, at one stage, we were on three falls each. But then she got a second wind and, with it, a couple more submissions. Although I did my best, I was trailing by five submissions to three with five minutes to go.
The crowd were very vocal and it was clear that, while she was on her home turf, Clara was not exactly flavour of the month with some of her club colleagues. Encouraged by the baying of the small group of spectators I rallied and pulled out all the stops in the closing minutes of the fight. I managed to get one more submission from the Frenchwoman but the fight ended 5-4 to Clara. Another defeat for me but, just like the previous week, I didn’t mind. It had been a great fight against a worthy opponent and I was happy to know that, at 63, I’d still got it. I just hoped that Blake had more success than me in her fight with Lorraine.
Lorraine Carter was an interesting choice of opponent for Blake and I wonder what had made Eva pick her. Clara had a reputation as both a wrestler and a boxer and, unlike Lorraine, had actually taken part in one world tournament. Perhaps Eva just felt that Clara and I would be better matched but surely there was another senior French boxer that Blake could have faced?
Lorraine had begun her boxing career at CLAWS in the late 1990s after the birth of her third child. She was 30 at the time, a late age to start fighting, and was coached by her husband, Phil, himself a former boxer. After three years, during which time she never rose above fourth in the CLAWS rankings she briefly left to have a fourth child but was back in the ring just 8 months later.
On her return she trained under the guidance of Gabi Marshall herself and won her first CLAWS league title at the end of 2000, just 6 months later. She failed to defend the title, losing to Suzi Lomax, but continued to fight in the league for another two years, winning the title again and retiring undefeated at the age of 36.
After she and her family moved to rural France in 2003, she continued to visit CLAWS on a regular basis and, over the next few years, participated in a number of special events. At the same time, she also took part in FFFL events held in Lyon, Toulouse and Paris. In 2010 she took part in the first CLAWS senior boxing tournament, finishing as runner up to arch rival Emma Cummings. She returned for the second tournament, defeating Emma in the semi-finals and beating Ellen Shaw to take the title. She fought in a further four senior tournaments finishing third in two and fourth in two others. Now 55 she was almost four years younger than Blake; she was also four inches taller and a few pounds lighter.
Further evidence of Gabi Marshall’s influence on the European scene came when Eva announced that the match would be fought under “CLAWS rules”, six three-minute rounds with points awarded for knockdowns and standing counts. To ensure fair play, as she put it, Eva invited me to be the third judge alongside herself as referee and a young woman she introduced as Charlotte, the time keeper.
I later found out that Charlotte was Eva’s daughter, a 26-year-old boxer and a close friend of Lorraine’s daughter Megan, who was now fighting in the CLAWS boxing league.
I did my best to be impartial but I have to admit that I favoured Blake when awarding my judge’s points. I’m sure Charlotte was favouring Lorraine in the same way. It was an intense match with the advantage changing hands several times. At the end of the sixth round an exhausted Blake was rewarded with a narrow 28-25 points victory and a chance to dive into that enticing pool.
Two fights in a week had taken its toll on my girl but she was back to her winning ways and had a two-week break before her next encounter. We spent another week in La Belle France before heading south to Naples and another encounter with an opponent from Blake’s world championship days.
Renata Lombardi had been the Italian champion in the 1990s but, like Sonia Lopez in Spain, she had gone out early in the world championships, once at the hands of Blake and once against Lesley O’Dowd. Now in her mid-fifties Renata was physically the closest to Rose Dawson of Blakes opponents so far on this tour; short, buxom, raven haired, tanned and powerful.
This time there was no opponent for me, the fight was a one-off affair with no audience that took place in a back street gym. Suzi Lomax did us the honour of flying out to referee the match, which was fought nude over unlimited 3-minute rounds with a simple knockout to decide the outcome, similar to the rules favoured by the NBFC. No cameras were present, just five women; Suzi, Renata, Blake, myself and Renata’s second, who we were never properly introduced to.
Renata claimed to still be fighting regularly, including against the girl who was acting as her second. However, it quickly became clear that her opponents weren’t in Blake’s class and neither was she. She lacked skill in the ring, often leaving herself exposed to Blake’s attacks, and it was no surprise that, after being dominated by my girl of two rounds, she went down for the count in the third.
It was a bit of a disappointment, all that way for just 10 minutes of one-sided action, but a win is a win and Blake was now 5-2 on the tour. We also had a wonderful couple of weeks travelling around Italy on their excellent trains.
At the end of May it was time to head north again, taking a beautifully scenic train ride through the alps. This time our destination was Munich where, a year after taking over from her mother as CEO of Marshall’s Germany, Erica Strauss had established an, as yet unnamed, female combat club along the lines of CLAWS. The club was a tribute to Wolfgang Stillermann, Gabi and Lena’s original mentor, who had passed away a few years earlier.
When we arrived in Munich, Erica informed us that it had been agreed that Blake’s fight with Rose would take place in the CLAWS ring at Marshall’s HQ and not in London as we had originally expected. She told us this was because the LLCC had struggled to find a suitable venue for the fight. It didn’t bother us too much. Yes, we would have to change our travel plans slightly but CLAWS was definitely a good venue and we had no complaints about being Gabi’s guests again.
Heavily pregnant with her first child the 40-year-old Ms. Strauss, herself a former CLAWS champion, was not a position to fight but she had persuaded a couple of veterans from the new LGIS to come out of retirement and was in the process of setting up her own senior boxing tournament. We were heading to boot camp where Blake would train with Nicole Hartwig, Silke Roth and several other veterans of the GMC and LGIS.
The training was intense and Blake fought a number of gruelling training fights against women almost a decade her junior. Her two official fights were against Silke (on June 3rd) and Nicole (on June 17th). Both women had fought extensively in the late 80s and early 90s and both were in their early 50s, seven or eight years younger than Blake.
For my part I had hoped to get to grips with Lena Strauss or even Gabi Marshall herself, a long-time dream of mine, but had to make do with Wolfgang’s widow instead. Marianne was another 70s veteran of the Munich scene and herself no slouch in the squared circle. We fought a best of five, submissions only match and I’m embarrassed to say that I suffered my third successive defeat at the hands of the 66-year-old German brunette. Maybe it is time for me to quit the fight game.
Nicole was a bruiser and a hard hitter who, at 5’9” towered over Blake. My girl did her best but Nicole’s height and reach gave her a huge advantage, landing three or four blows to each of Blake’s. Blake finally went down for the count a minute into the fifth round.
Two weeks later she faced Silke in her final fight before taking on Rose. Silke was the more experienced and stylish boxer than Nicole and I was worried that Blake might lose again – not good psychology just three weeks ahead of her fight with Rose. Silke gave Blake a good run for her money, with the lead changing hands several times over six rounds, but Blake came out victorious with a narrow 29-27 points win. That brough Blake’s score for the tour to a respectable six wins and three losses.
I also got into the ring with Silke but, of course, stood no chance against an experienced fighter ten years my junior and lost our little ten minute “submissions only” wrestling match by five falls to nil.
Munich was new to both Blake and myself and we enjoyed our time there immensely. In all my travels around Europe in the 70s and 80s I’d never made it to Germany. As an army brat Blake had spent time on a base near Frankfurt in the 60s. But that was a long time ago and service families rarely ventured off-base in those days so she had no real memories of the beautiful mountains and rivers of the country.
We loved the area and enjoyed out month at Erica’s boot camp and touring around Bavaria. There was even time to squeeze in a trip to Vienna where we were welcomed by Heidrick Stolz, at 75 still running the Catz Club and still enjoying watching his ladies fight. Before you ask, no we didn’t, but we did enjoy watching an evening of wrestling by some of his current stable of girls.
Midsummer was far approaching and, with it, the high point of our trip – Blake’s encounter with Rose Dawson. With the venue changed, we decided not to go back to London and instead, joined Erica, Lena and Marianne on a flight to the local airport a week before the fight. Although I didn’t tell Blake at the time, I also made plans for us to go back to Sian Ryan’s farm after the fight. Whatever the outcome I figured Blake could benefit from a little R’n’R in the English mountains and, after my recent poor showing in the ring, I was hoping to redeem myself with a victory over Sian, Evie or one of the other NBFC girls.
To find out how Blake got on against Rose read my story “A Rose by any other name.” coming soon.
