BOXING

Grey River Argus, 18 September 1945, Page 3

BOXING

Murphy v. Bolger FORMER WINS GREAT CONTEST P.A. DUNEDIN, Sept. 17 Laurie Bolger, the Mataura boxer, scaling lOst 5Hb. suffered his first reverse when he met Bos Murphy, of Wellington, scaling lOst 51b. tonight. They met in a twelve round professional welter-weight contest in the Town Hall to-night.

Murphy gained the decision on points, after the hardest bout of the season. Bolger fought a strong defensive fight, but Murphy, who gave a polished display, held a slight edge on his opponent, with the exception of two or three of the earlier rounds. In the eighth and ninth -rounds Murphy shook Bolger with heavy lefts to the head and body, but, after taking considerable punishment in the eleventh round, Bolger came back strongly in the last round. The attendance, which numbered about 3.500 was the largest for manyyears. WEST COASTERS DO WELL The West Coast team put up a ver-v meritorious performance against a strong Otago team in the preliminaries to the Murphy v. Bolger fight in Dunedin last night. G. Bovrman, J. Boddy, M. Tuck and V. Tuck each won their bouts and J. Finlay lost on points. RAYNER BEATS FOOTE P.A. WELLINGTON, Sept. 18 Clarrie Rayner, of Blenheim, retained the professional featherweight boxing championship of New Zealand at the Town Hall, Wellington, to-night, successfully -withstanding a challenge by Harold Foote, of Wellington. Foote retired at the end of the thirteenth round with a broken nose. Though Foote made a game effort, Rayner was too experienced'. MUIR TO FIGHT CLARK George Muir, Greymouth heavyweight, has been matched with Bobby Clark for a fight in Wellington on Octobei- 1. Clark is an Australian middleweight, recently arrived in the Dominion. The purse of £2OO is the highest in New Zealand for several years. , Muir has also been matched with Jack Cossil of Wellington in a heavyweight contest at Hastings on October 15. Norman Ross will probably fight Jack McCann of Wellington in a middle-weight contest at Greymouth on October 23. Tot Hoggarth, of Brunner, holder of the New Zealand professional bantam-weight boxing championship, has received a challenge for tne title from R. Hawes. In his first bout for over 12 months Hoggarth recently dropped a points decision over 10 rounds to Hawes at Christchurch.