BOXING

Grey River Argus, 29 March 1937, Page 8

BOXING

A Disastrous Ending IN PROFESSIONAL CONTEST. The professional lightweight boxing dontest at the Greymouth Town Hall on Saturday night, between Ralph Aitken of Wellington, and Dolph Latta, of Australia, ended (disastrously in the first two minutes of the» open, ing round, when the referee (Mr A. Beban) disqualified! Latta for hitting low, and awarded ithe bout (o Aitken On a foul. There was a mild demon, sttetion at this outcome, but the referee undoubtedly adopted the only possible course, .even though such a position to have arisen so early in the contest will have an adverse effect On the sport in the district. The referee had twice warned Latta for hitting low.

Addressing the moderate attendance 1 aftei-i his decision, the referee had considerable difficulty in making himself heard. He said: “I had to do that. He might have been rained for life. It. was the only thing I could do, and the right thing to do. I won’t tolerate that and' the tight can’t go on. I wqs’nedi him twice.”

Despite' repeated requests for ’he fight to continue, both boxer® retired from the ring. 'There was no weights announced for either contestants, the referee announcing that- the contest was one of 15 three-minute rounds catch; weigh’s. Aitken, was the aggressor from the outset and scored with two straight lefts at close range. Latta was warn, ed for hanging on with his right arm, and soon afterwards was warne'di for hitting low. The pair engaged! in a JJive'ly .encounter in the right| hand front' corner of the ring, and it was when they were breaking atway from a clinch that the final incident occurred. Labta c ame in with a left swing and Aitken emitted a cry. The referee immediately ’called! “here,” and grabbing Aitken’s arm, declared! him the winner on a foul. Thus'the bout ended barely two and a-half minutes after it began. The occurrence was more particularly unfortunate', when it is recalled that Ihe last boxing contest at Greymouth, between Clarriei Raynor and Joe Hall, ended in a similar fashion,, Raynor being disqualified for fouling- Hall. Three amateur preliminaries precedt ed the main contest.

W. Dorter (12 st.) defeated R-. Adams (11 ' s t. 4 lbs.) on points. W. Kennedy (10 st. defeated C. Davy (10 st. 2' lbs.) on a technical knockout. This iwas - splendid bout.. Davy scored: convincingly in the two first loundis, but in the third Kennedy found an opening and floored his -wp. ponent.

An outstanding exhibition of boxing was given by T. Hoggarth (7st. 10 lbs.) in his bouii. with B. Chandler (8 st. 8 lbs.) which Hoggarth won easily on points, despite the big pull in the weights.