FIRST show of the new season under his belt, York's lord of the ring Henry Wharton is looking "onward and upward".

The city's most successful professional boxer was delighted when his opening show of the new term at his Henry's Gym in Acomb's York Road got the club off to a flier.

Four fighters from the club fought on the bill with two gaining stoppage wins and the other two unanimous points verdicts for a clean sweep.

Said Wharton, whose ring reign yielded him an undefeated run as British, Commonwealth and European super-middleweight champion: "It was almost a year on from our first show and the improvement has been dramatic.

"The lads who fought were good, in fact they were better than good and it was a great night.

"Again I stress to all the lads that we have here at the gym that it's not just about winning, it's more about learning and we will never give up that belief in the search just for wins.

"But it was great to see how well they have come on in the past year. It's now a case of onward and upward."

Meanwhile, Wharton is preparing to reach an even wider audience next month.

After a three-night programme of signing copies of his biography "Henry's Dream - The Life Story of Henry Wharton - former British, European and Commonwealth Champion" at his own gym, the Hunslet Boys Club in Leeds and a boxing club in Hull, Wharton and his biographer, Jim Kirkwood are to appear in the centre of York.

They will be at the Coney Street store of W H Smith on Saturday, November 1 when Wharton will sign copies of the book between 11am and 1pm.

Kirkwood, who is a former policeman and current timekeeper for the British Boxing Board of Control; in his native Scotland, explained that while last month's whistle-stop tour of boxing clubs drew many fans, they were from their respective boxing communities.

"There will be many other boxing fans and sports fans who will may be not know that there's a book out about Henry," said Kirkwood. "We'll be hoping to attract them to the signing atW H Smith's."

The authoir, who has also written books on two other crowd-pleasing boxers in Dave Charnley and Tony Sibson, said the biography of York's most illustrious fighter - published by Dalcumly Press at £14.99 - is now on sale at Amazon and also at prestigious London bookstore W G Foyle's.