BOXING.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 147, 7 June 1911, Page 3

BOXING.

’ U EA V Y - WE IG HT CHA MPTON-1 j SHIP OF GREAT BRITAIN. I ; Bombardier A\ ells and Tan Hague! i met at the National on Monday j evening in a 2t»-rounds contest for; the heavy-weicht championship of! ' Great Britain ;md the Lonsdale! . ih-lt isnys a London exchange of! . Apr:.' The theatre was crowd-' ‘ ed. The result marked the tri-! . uinph of the skilled boxer over the 1

unscientific slogger, the ex-soldier avoiding any heavy chance blow from the Yorkshireman, and proving all the way through that, barring accidents, skill must prevail. Hague tried hard, from the moment the gong sounded, to effect a knock-ont, but Wells maintained a sound defence, and,-served by his greater height and reach, kept up a worrying and persistent attack. From the start he drove his long left on the face at frequent intervals. Hague, on the other hand, went in to fight, and twice in the first round he reached the soldier’s ribs with heavy punches. The fight was particularly clean, not a single clinch marring the opening round. Wells used his right just as effectively as he had done his left in the second round, •md Hague got two nasty jolts on the neck. The third round went much the same way. except that in the last half minute Hague, who sailed in to mix it. found Wells was just as good as himself at this game. Round -J went all in favour of the Bombardier, Wells scoring with both hands. Hague went down for two counts of eight and six seconds respectively. Game as could be, lan took the centre for the fifth time, and actually tried to force the exchanges. Wells, however, rather easily evaded his swings, but Hague managed to stay till the end of the bout. It was only, however, delaying the inevitable, for at the’sixth meeting Wells crowded all in, and Hague, after being upset twice, was put down again and beaten. Hage was game, but quite outclassed at all points, and Wells showed a harder punch than was expected.

LANG AND LESTER. So Bill Lang did not obtrude that £4OO obstacle because Lester had called him a -‘dub,” or because he thought Lester “would be no draw.” or even because “ Lester, if he had won, would have gone back to America immediately” (writes “‘Amateur” in the Sydney “‘Referee”). A wire sent to Bill on Friday asking if he would meet Lester in June or July, as the American intended returning home next Monday by the Makura should there be no chance of a return match within reasonable time, brought! the following reply: “‘lmpossible to fight Lester before August. Both hands injured.” (Signed), Lang. Having rend the communication, Lester said: “Well, there

is no help for it. I'll wait ; but I must get to the woods somewhere in the meantime. The city is no good to me.” Yesterday I received the following letter from Billy Williams, of Melbourne, who guarded Lang’s interests in the match with Lester:

“Both of Lang’s thumbs are in a bad way, and Iris medical advisors told him it would be foolish on his part to box within a couple of months’ time, for, if he did, they might be injured for all time, and he intends following the surgeon’s advice. His hands were in a very bad way before he fought Lester. Had he not promised to fight Squires at Brisbane prior to his fight with Lester he would cer* tainly have given the first battle if Lester could have seen his way clear to have stopped here until August. This accident is unfortunate for Lang, as he could have fought both Lester and Turner before his battle with Squires. When Bill Turner talked yesterday about fighting Lang I mentioned that the fact of Lang’s hands being in hospital stood very much in the way; also, that Billy Williams said they were bad before the fight. “Bad 1” ejaculated Turner. “What are you giving us? I sparred with him up to the last, and he gave me some hurry-up all the time, let me tell you. This is the first I have heard about queer hands.”

Turner was Lang's sparring partner,’ and one of his seconds in the fight.

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIP.

On Monday night Gus Devitt, the Maorilander. fought Bungardy for the middle-weight championship of South Australia (says the Sydney “Referee” of May 31). If was the best contest seen here for a considerable time. Referee Perriman gave the verdict to Devitt after twenty rounds. A draw’ would have been a better decision. The ring -was slippery ow’ing to a heavy dew.