BOXING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 28 August 1926, Page 27

BOXING.

RINGSIDE GOSSIP

Things are very much at a dead end in Auckland just now.

There is talk of matching Hay and Jamito some time next month-

The Trowern-Purdy scrap at Invercargill next month should provide the Southland fans with their moneys worth. With Baxter on his way back to Australia and Murray in America, there is a dearth of first-class lightweights in the Dominion at present. Canterbury enthusiasts expect "Twist' .Taggers a former protegee of Fritz Holland's, to bring back the New Zealand welterweight, title from Xapier after next week. The Auckland delegates to the New Zealand championships at Xapier will look into the prospects of a fight betwees, Artie Hay, the Dominion welter champion and Jamito, the proposed match to take place at Auckland towards the end of next month. Sunny Jim Williams, the American negro middleweight, stopped the recentlyarrived Frenchman, Marcel Thuru, in four rounds at Sydney last Saturday night. The visitor was badly beaten up before the referee stopped the fightIt is hard to see anyone beating the popular darkey- just now.

The Xew Zealand Boxing Council has accepted the donation of a welterweight championship belt from "Xew Zealand Truth." Overseas boxers are not eligible for competition until they have put in twelve months' residence here, the idea being to encourage local talent. The present 10.7 champion is Artie Hay, and the association that manages to fix up a bout between him and Charlie Purdy for the title and belt should be on a good wicket.

Al McDonald and his brother Colin looked in to see the writer the other dayThe two Aucklanders have been over in Australia for a good while and are hack in the Dominion seeking matches. The first-named fights round about 10.3, and his brother, Colin, is a middleweight. Em Baxter showed grit in electing to go on with his fight against Purdy under the handicap of a broken rib. 'it was not till the morning of the match that the fracture was discovered, and Baxter reckoned that it wasn't a fair thing to the public or the W.B.A. to call off the match then. They say there will be a great welcome for the redoubtable Australian when he and Mrs. Baxter come back in a couple of months' time.

A new arrival i n the Dominion is Tom Whittle, an American heavyweight, who is at present in Auckland, endeavouring to secure a match. The big fellow from the States runs to a poundage which takes him a shade over 13 stone,. and the writer is afraid that at first he will find it hard to find many suitable opponents in the heavyweight class in the Dominion. With Tom Heeney in England and Brian MeCleary on the retired list, there is only Eddie Parker, the present holder of both heavy and cruiser titles, and not much has been heard of the Timaru champion lately. Still, Whittle is keen for a try-out, and if his advent here should impart a muchneeded impetus to the heavier divisions, he should soon find matches coming his way. either here or in Australia.

Ted Scott was a boxing writer in Wellington before be elected to try his luck with the gloves in the Old World. No doubt, in the old days, the aforesaid Mr. Scott was as vigorous as anyone in his denunciation of second-rate Antipodean Scrappers who billed themselves up as "champions" of Australia or Xew Zealand, as the case might be, when they went abroad to seek fame and fortune, "in any case, it comes as an unpleasant surprise to read in "Boxing," under date March 17, that Van Dyk (Holland) beat Ted Scott ("lightweight champion of New Zealand") in the eighth round after a very mediocre display. Commenting on the bout, the English journal's boxing scribe says: "Scott's lack of average knowledge of the game plainly showed that the form 'down under' is distinctly below par. So crude was Scott's performance that it was evident from the first round that the fight would not go the full distance." It is palpably evident from the foregoing that Scott's showing left English critics with a very poor opinion of the standard in New Zealand: .Vow that Scott is back again, he might be able to explain how he came to be billed as "lightweight champion of Xew Zealand."