Empire Boxers Under Eye of Palmerstonian

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 46, 24 February 1938, Page 5

Empire Boxers Under Eye of Palmerstonian

IMPRESSIONS OF MR G. WATCHORN The particular good fortune of beingchosen as one of the judges in the boxing events at the Empire Games in Sydney recently, befell Mr G. Watchorn of Palmerston North. Originally . Mr Watchorn went to Australia quite unofficially, but on arrival there he found that there might be some difficulty in securing a reasonably good seat. However, through the good offices of Mr G. Aldridge, secretary of the New Zealand Boxing Association, and on account of his own qualifications, be secured recognition, and when Dr. J. P Kenny, of Western Australia, was unable to fulfil his appointment as one of I he judges of boxing, Mr Watchorn was chosen iu his stead. Mr Watchorn witInossed every wrestling and boxing bout, land of the 36 displays with the gloves he was a judge of 29. Standard of Boxing. “The New Zealand competitors were i rather unfortunate in meeting tough 1 opposition,” said Mr Watchorn in 1 speaking of the boxing, “but all of them put up creditable performances. Some critics have commented that in the case , of boxing the standard was rathe: i weak, although in one or two instances 1 some excellent bouts eventuated. Of those which were outstanding, Joubert (South Africa) and J. Gagnon (Canada) , put up a great performance in the final of the flyweight division, and it was ' only in the last round that Joubert went ahead. A. W. Henricus, a coloured boxer, of Ceylon, r.as a very popular winner in the final of the feather- : weight section, and he adopted the old straight-up Jem Mace style of boxing, i W. H. Butler (England), a bantamweight, was another who had a good left, and in his final bout with H. Knoesen (South Africa) gave a very interesting display of scientific boxing. Unfortunately the majority of the boxers forgot they had a left hand, and seemed anxious to beat the othel man by brute force instead of outboxing him. Palmerstonian in Ring. “The Palmerston North boxer, J. Collins, met W. R. Felton (Rhodesia), and had Collins used his left as he does in Palmerston North he might easily have been adjudged the winner. As it was, the first round was fairly even. Collins failed to use his left hand and mixed it with Fulton, who has a fairly (rugged type of physique. The Rhodesian bored in most of the time, but 1 j thought that Collins had shaded him and gave 20 to Collins and 18 to Fulton.

In the second round it appeared to me that Fulton’s seconds had told him keep on top of Collins, for those were the tactics he adopted. There was a hurricane start to the round, but the speed gradually slowed down and 1 thought Collins was again slightly ahead, the margin being about tho same. My award was 20 points to Collins and 18 to Fulton again. The last rodnd was a fine one. The Rhodesian did not let up and kept on top of Collins all the time. Condition told in the finish and tho Rhodesian won the bout by a small margin of points, although Collins seemed to be coming away at tho finish. Collins certainly lost the bout, but did not disgrace Palmerston North. Wrestling Described. “The wrestling was practically all won by the Australians —the bantam, feather, welter, light-heavy, and the heavyweight divisions. The middleweight was annexed, by T. Evans, of Canada, who is, I believe, an Olympic champion. Our entrants did not appear to be familiar with the Olympic rules, under which, if one shoulder is momentarily on the mat, that constitutes a fall. In several instances they did not even know that a fall had been given against them. The same thing happened to Scarf at the last Olympic Games, when the Australians protested' very strongly against the ruling. However, the Olympic rules- governing wrestling appear to be quite satisfactory, and it might be advisable to adopt them throughout New Zealand. One thing the rules showed, however, was that the aggressive wrestlers handicapped themselves by taking chances, whereas the man who remained on the defensive and waited for an opportunity—sometimes by luck much more than management —had the opportunity to pin his man. “Of course, theso bouts were all held in the stadium at Rushcutters ’ Bay, and on the final night the place was packed out. If I had not been one of the officials I would have been well away from the ringside. Some of the

2 visitors from Australian -States, were ) unable to obtain ringside seats. Dry den ) (New Zealand), who defeated the col-, i ossal Scotsman, A. Dudgeon, who r weighed at out 20 stone, in the elimina-! I tion bouts, met J. Knight (Australia) ’ in the final, of the heavyweight divi- ) sion. Knight is the present Empire * champion, uud only in the last minute t or so did he manage to pin Dryden. Up 1 to that time the points were even, and • it was a toss-up as to who was going to 3 be the winner. After the bout was t over Knight said that Dryden, who is i a farmer at Featherston, was one of t the strongest men he had ever wrestled. 3 This was only about Dryden’s fourth i appearance in the ring since ho has taken up the sport. He has promised me that if we find an opponent for him l he will be pleased to wrestle in Palmerston North during the season. General Impressions. * ‘Generally, the Games were most inl teresting indeed, and they were con- , ducted exceedingly well,” Mr Watch- . orn added. “The only thing about > which there was any trouble was the 3 diving, and personally I thought that . it was wonderful. The hero of the r Games w r as C. H. Matthews, of ChristL church, who won the three miles and P the six niileis. The mile was rather dis- ! appointing to New Zealanders, as we l ; all expected P. V. Boot to emerge the . r winner, but he was decisively beaten , by J. W. Alford (Wales) and G. I. 1 Backhouse (Australia). Boot being , about two yards behind the second man. However, Boot won the 880 yards in very 'fine fashion by about 20 yards [ from F. E. Handley (England), who was second. ” ; Mr. Watchorn, as one of the three judges selected for the finals of the » boxing, was associated with Messrs A. . O. Bern (Victoria) and C. Proctor (Queensland].