ON Friday (October 9) hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects to Alan Minter before he was laid to rest. Crawley High Street was awash with memories of “Boom Boom” – the man who put Crawley on the map – as the funeral cortege made its way through the crowds before stopping outside the White Horse pub.
Alongside his coffin inside the white horse-drawn carriage, topped with boxing gloves and a heart bearing his name, were his boxing belts, including the Lonsdale Belt he also won at middleweight.
There were around five minutes of applause for Minter before cheers filled the air.
“The amount of people who have come out for him is a testament to how well loved he was,” said Crawley Major, Francis Guidera. “To see his sons there, it was so emotional. This is a person and a family who have lost someone too soon.”
It is hoped that a statue will be erected in the town in his honour. Not only one of Crawley’s forever heroes, Minter will go down in boxing history as one of his country’s greatest fighters. He died last month at the age of 69 from cancer.
