AMONG SPORTING GIANTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22444, 13 June 1936, Page 17 (Supplement)

AMONG SPORTING GIANTS

gangs'in England long ago perfected the art of " macing the rattler," or travelling without tickets. 'ln a volume of reminiscences which deals vividly with the drama as well as the humour of sport, -Mr. B. Bennison, the well-known sporting journalist, says he once discovered, on a night excursion to , a race meeting in the Jkorth, that not one of his fellow-pas-sengers had paid his fare. One of the " hoys " donned a porter's cap and produced a lighted lantern. The train pulled up at some outlandish/ station. Out on to the darkened platform he stepped, to bawl i' a voice of brass: " Tickets please." In a twinkling he returned with a handful, and;, doled them out to his companions, remarking of the victims: " Won't they be sorry for tjiem- ■ Wives when they have to drop their fare?" ' Mr. J. T. Hulls, the boxing referee, Was once asked to attend an inquiry fßto a charge by a boxer against his Manager. Said Mr. W. JJnts-Smith to / ' n Ids severely judicial mariner, This boxer alleges that his manager has, so he puts it, ' twisted ' him. Do you know this manager? Tell me." "Mr. Smith," answered Hulls, " I | don't doubt his disbonestv for a moment." A Shrewd Referee Mr. Bennison and Mr. Hulls, travelog to Monte Carlo for the Carpentier"Ullivan fight, badly wanted the compartment to themselves; but a Frenchman got in and proceed, il to put his nand-luggage on the rack. " As he did *°» Hulls ' bow-wowed ' like a yapping WWier. The Frenchman, turning swiftly

A Journalist's Reminiscences

round to make sure that he had not been bitten, craved pardon. But each time he turned his back to fix his small baggage, Hulls ' bow-wowed ' the louder and more menacingly. Whereupon, the Frenchman, having shot daggers at both of us, gathered up his traps and bolted." Luigi, the famous maitre d'hotel, once asked Eugene Corri if he would take him to a contest lie was refereeing. " Certainly," said Eugene. " But, Luigi, you will be well advised to leave everything that is liftablo _ The fight over, Corri found Luigi in great agitation. " For, Signor Corri," he cried, " I go to the fight with no money, no nothing. I take my seat, I watch and hear. First a shot is fired, and then I feel a hand in my pocket. 1 take it out, and ask the owner what he means. And what I get was what you call a thump in the eye. All because 1 had no money, no nothing." North Country Cricket Turning to cricket, Mr. Bennison recalls M. A. Noble, the Australian captain, in one of his earliest tests at Old Trafford, when he had his back to the wall and had so entrenched himself at the wicket that " little short of dynamite would have dislodged him." A typical North Country crowd sat around for hours, praying for his dismissal, admiring his bigness, generally fidgeting. When, for the sixth time, an appeal for leg-before was negatived, someone sot up a howl of laughter by shouting: " Change t' umpire!" Mr. Bennison followed Burgess in a tug on one of his Channel swims. The