The Debut of Battling Billson
The Debut of Battling Billson
The Debut of Battling Billson is a funny short story by P. G. Wodehouse, published in 1923. In the United States it appeared in Cosmopolitan in June, and in the United Kingdom in The Strand in July. It features Ukridge, a sly, quick-witted schemer who wants to make his fortune in boxing.
Plot in short: Ukridge spots a wealthy boxing manager and decides to get involved in the sport. He runs into an old acquaintance, a huge sailor named Billson, who has come back to England looking for work and has fallen for a barmaid named Flossie. They visit James Corcoran before heading to the training ground. Billson’s first fight moves him with sympathy for his opponent’s life story, but after a few hard blows he grows angry and is knocked out when distracted.
Ukridge learns that the reigning champion, Tod Bingham, is offering big prizes to anyone who can last two rounds with him. He tries to push Billson to fight for the money, and to keep Billson hungry he has Flossie write a letter implying she has been wooed away by Bingham, with their friend George Tupper involved in the plan.
On fight day, the crowd is buzzing for Billson, but the champion has been hit by a truck and can’t fight. A bystander explains the accident and jokes that the driver—a huge red-headed man—might have saved his strength for the ring.
Billson appears again in other Ukridge stories. The tale was illustrated in Cosmopolitan and The Strand and has been collected in later Ukridge volumes. It has been adapted for radio in 1940 and for television in 1968, and was used in a 1992–93 BBC radio series about Ukridge.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 17:37 (CET).