BOXING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 279, 22 November 1913, Page 16

BOXING.

The contest for the new Lonsdale Featherweight Belt, emblematic of the Oat championship of Great Britain, took place at the National Sporting Club last Monday evening, says our London correI spondent on October 10th. The conI testants we,re "'Kid" Lewis, of Aidgate, and the ex-amateur champion, Alec Lambert, who, since he joined the professional ranks, has steadily worked his way to the front. As a sporting contest the battle between these aspirants for Jim Driscoll's shoes was as good .a one as one may wish to see, but neither man showed his best form, and the boxing on the whole was much below the standard set by Di iseoll in his palmy days. Still, it was a clean, hard-fought contest, and the voice of the referee was heard in protest only once during the 17 rounds the fight lasted. As for pluck, both showed it in abundance, and when the end came it arrived simply because Lambert had reached the limit of his physical tether. He was not knocked out, but was to weak that his seconds threw up the sponge, to save him from further punishment. The winner. Lewis, developed a very ugly stylo in this contest. At one moment be was almost the ideal straight left hit, stop, and get-away 'boxer, and the nest * fewr-awav round

arm slogger, hurling blows at his vis-a----vis after the fashion of a' street scrapper, and missing his mark more often than he found it. At times his work with feet and hands was truly weird, and its only justification was that its unorthodoxy— call it by a mild and euphonious name — completely nonplussed his opponent, and caused him to box far below his proper form. At times, notably in the fifth, eighth, and thirteenth rounds, Lambert exhibited really good form, and in the latter round had Lewis very shaky from a well-timed right to the jaw. Had he followed his man up then he might easily have won by the knook-out route, but he failed to follow up his advantage, and Lewis made a splendid recovery. The fourteenth round saw the Aldgate boxer quite strong and full of light. He had rather the best of some delightful slogging, and just on the end of the round one of his wild swings made connection with Lambert's jaw. The recipient went down, but rose almost immediately, and the pong simultaneously rang out. Lambert was a bit shaky on resumption, but Lewis was far too erratic to take full advantage of his opponent's weakness, and though he doled Out some hefty punches which set Lambert "going," he could not corner his elusive adversary to administer the coup de grace. The seventeenth round saw the finale, for after a few feeble attempts to get in close Lambert dropped his guard, and received the right fall on the point. He gamely struggled to his feet, but* a couple of left jabs in the small ribs brought him down again, and ere the referee had counted four Lambert's .second gave the signal o£ defeat. And so Lewis won and became the first holder of the second Lonsdale Featherweight belt ami the English champion at H stone. But unless, he is a much belter man than his showing on Monday night suggests, Jim Uriscoll would not find it very difficult to remove the laurels from his successor's brow, if he Kirn] to undertake the task, and Owen .Moran—if he can make the weight nowaday?would be a strong favourite if lie put in a claim for the belt.