BOXING

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 30, 5 February 1927, Page 23

BOXING

By "akneac"

COMING CONTEST

PURDY V. GRIME

NEW ZEALANDER'S CHANCE

It is safe to say. that the Town Hall will hold but half those who wish to see Billy Grime, the featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight champion of Australia, matched against Charlie Purdy next month. It is certainly the first time in the history of boxing in New Zealand that a triple champion right in his prime has been seen in action here. Grime is going on to Australia with the intention of meeting the champion of the world, and good judges who have seen the best in America and also Grime claim that he is better than anyone wearing a crown in the States. Wellington are indeed fortunate—and so is Purdy. The contest will give Purdy a chancp to show how good he really is. There are not a few in this city who consider that Purdy will go all' the way with the Australian champion, and get the verdict at the finish. They are optimists, but there is no getting away from the fact that Purdy was too clever for Bert M'Carthy, and that McCarthy went very near to taking the Australian championship from Grime. The visitor will not be any faster than Purdy, and he will be up against a clever boxer, but he has a wonderful punch, and is an adept at trapping his opponent. , ;

It is only natural that every New Zealander hopes that Purdy will win, but if he makes Grime try his hardest all the way, then he will have done something that many others have failed to do. Loveridge and Jamito. Probably the most memorable page in Taranaki's boxing history was written on Saturday night, when, before a crowded house at the New.Plymouth Opera House, the provincial association's ambitious programme met with the success it fully deserved. Seldom could such enthusiasm have prevailed at a boxing contest, and surely never has such a stirring climax been witnessed in a Taranaki ring. The attraction of the evening was the contest between the popular light-weight, Dick Loveridge (of New Plymouth), and the visiting Filipino, Salvino Jamito. And in this meeting the most sanguine expectations were realised. Boar upon roar literally shook the building as the plucky little Filipino and the local boy stood toe to toe working like two fighting machines from gong to gong in the final round. Blow for blow, and arms working with piston-like precision, brought the whole house to its feet, in tense moments of excitement that were created intermittently until the final gong. The result was a triumph of youth and tenacity over ringcraft and experience. There was only the narrowest of margins at the conclusion, and the verdict went to Loveridgc on account of cleaner and more persistent hitting. The Filipino was in no way disgraced, and the memorable exhibition of grit he displayed under punishment -will long be remembered. The entire arrangements had been well organised by -the association's secretary (Mr. E. J. Carr), and the whole programme was presented without a hitch. The only unfortunate incident was the late arrival of the mail train, on which the referee (Mr. Earl Stewart) was travelling from Wellington. In order to create as little delay as possible, Mr. Stewart changed aboard . the train, and was rushed straight from the station into the ring to umpire the first bout at 8.40 p.m. Prior to his arrival an exhibition was given by two midgets, Sykes (6.8) and D. Boebuck (6.0). Brian M'Cleary. Brian M' Cleary is anxious to get into the game again and is open to meet any man in New Zealand, but would prefer Eddie Parker in a match for the championship which Eddie Parker holds (writes "Cestus" ,in the Christchurch "Star"). For some considerable time M'Cleary has been in steady training, 'and at present is down to 12st 121b,----oivabout half, a stone cfi: his fighting weight. Brian says the size of the purse, so far as ,ho is concerned, is a.; secondary consideration, his main object, being a match. M'Cleary made a fatal] blunder when he agreed to meet Tom Heeney before having recovered from a very serious attack of influenza. Even so, he completely outboxed his formidable opponent for .thirteen rounds, but he suffered severely for his ill-advised action in competing. If M'Cleary has recovered the form he .showed us against Laurie Cadman and Jack Heeney, then I should say a match with Parker would be a good proposition for any association to undertake. Slump in Australia. A review of the Australian titleholders reveals the sombre fact that, as a glove-fighting nation, we have slumped considerably (writes Jim Donald in "Smith's Weekly"). Time was when the prowess of our boxers excited the wonder and admiration of the world. Creedon, Hall, Slavin, and Jackson played skittles with Britain's best bruisers. Griffo, FitzsimmonSj Dawson, and Co., electrified the Yankees. The name of the "Bocks" marvel will go down to posterity as the fastest and cleverest boxer who ever donned a glove. The greatest athletic clubs in America appointed Australians as. boxing instructors. In fact, it is not an extravagant statement to say that Australians taught the Yanks to box. Only the other day no less an authority than Jack Kearns wrote that, in his opinion, the late Les Darcy was the "greatest middle-weight of all time." So, from the blinding light of these brilliant traditions of the past, we come to the tragic obscurity of the present. .To-day the Australian prizering is brightened by the resplendent ability of one man, Billy Grime. The genius of this pale, meagre stripling shines like a beacon through the murk of mediocrity which hovers like a pall over pugdom's realm. Wearer of the

triple crown, nine stone in. weight, brave_ ana skilful, subtle in strategy, rich in resource, a trim, flat-muscled little thunderbolt, Grime represents the highest culture of the glovesmith's art. In him we visualise all the vanished glory of our boxing past. Apart from Grime, we haven't a boxer of class in any division. Late Mr. A. F. Bettinson. Mr. Arihur F. Bettinson, the managing director of the National Sporting Club, who died from pneumonia, following a chill contracted on his return from a health-searching trip in Italy, was 64 years of age, and from his boyhood had been a wonderful athlete: a hardened swimmer, a keen cricketer and Bugby footballer, but, above all else, a first-class boxer, states the Morning Post," London. Boxing and | Rugby often march hand in hand, and [ Bettinson was a masterman in both sports. Before he was out of his teens he was ambitious enough to try for a Queensberry championship at old Lillie Bridge—a middle-weight and all—but he got down to light-weight afterwards, and in 1882, at oia St. James's Hall, came out as the winner. Bettinson was a top-hole craftsman in leads and footwork, and he had a big punch m both hands. His well-knit physique and his wonderful health and stamina were retained by him almost to tho end; he was as hard as nails just as some of his famous contemporaries are say notably Mr. Harry Preston of ? nd m- B> Jl An§le of the Stock Exchange. After he had given up active com-i petitive boxing Bettinson, along with! atV Z ohn mcmin S> founded the National Sporting Club. This was at the start of <tke 'nineties. It was the beginning of, a new era in boxing for amateurs and professionals; it uplifted the professional business from the squalor into which it had drifted to a clean honest sport. Bight through the years no one had such a whip hand of the professor as Bettinson—he insisted on a hard straight game and the professors had to toe the line. It was under the Bettinson regime tnat we had such ornaments- of the ring as Peter Jackson, Frank Slavin and Jake Kilrain showing to us the best side of scientific pugilism in London. And there was the glorious Jim Dnscoll, too, that Bettinson discovered, to say nothing of Freddy Welsh Tommy Burns, and Packy Macfarland. Everything prospered in the sport at the N.S.C. Amid all the claims on his time Bettinson even found a moment now and then for a dabble in literature. His history of. the National Sporting Club is one of the most entertaining books of its kind. In this he had as a collaborator Mr. B Bennison; but before this he had edited "The N.S.C. Past and Present," a great story of big fights and famous sportsmen.

Mr. Bettinson, who enjoyed the sobriquet of "Peggy" all the world over, nominated his son Lionel, who had distinguished war service, to manage the boxing at the N.S.C. when hit own health began to give way.