Roger Pleace

Roger Pleace
Personal information
NationalityBritish (Welsh)
Born1933
Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales
Died2010 (aged 76)[1]
Sport
SportBoxing
Event
Heavyweight
ClubRoath Youth BC
Cardiff Gas BC
Medal record
Representing
Commonwealth Games
1958 Cardiff heavyweight

Roger Pleace (1933 – 2010) was a Welsh boxer who won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games.

Biography

Pleace, born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, spent his childhood in the docks[1] and began boxing aged 12. He won the schoolboy and youth national titles in 1945 and 1947[2] before winning the 1956 and 1958 Welsh ABA light-heavyweight championships.[3]

He was selected for the 1958 Welsh team[4] for the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, where he competed in the heavyweight category[5] and won the bronze medal.[6] The Welsh boxing team secured six medals from ten weight classes.[7]

After he retired from fighting, he coached his younger brother Dennis and worked in the shipyards as a boiler maker. He emigrated to South Africa for four years in the 1970s but returned to Cardiff and Llandaff, where he ran a number of pubs. He also opened two Cardiff gymnasiums with his father.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Boxing hero was Games medallist". Wales Online. 22 March 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  2. ^ "Resumed his career". Pontypridd Observer. 19 July 1958. p. 23. Retrieved 3 October 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ "Champions heavyweight" (PDF). Welsh Boxing. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  4. ^ "Welsh Boxing Team for Empire Games". Birmingham Daily Post. 5 June 1958. p. 25. Retrieved 3 October 2025 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ "Wales Cardiff 1958". Commonwealth Games Federation. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  6. ^ "Commonwealth Games Medallists". GBR Athletics. Retrieved 3 October 2025.
  7. ^ "A boxing dynasty". Barry and District News. 18 December 2008. Retrieved 3 October 2025.