ABOUT A MANAWATU BOY.

NZ Truth, Issue 473, 11 July 1914, Page 10

ABOUT A MANAWATU BOY.

Billy McCabe, who is better known m New Zealand sunder his proper name, Billy Shields,' ♦ has been pretty busy over m Australia of late. He went to I/ithgbw, the Blue Mountains town where coal and iron abound, and where the Commonwealth has established its small arms factory. There, he boxed a fast and exciting draw with that good bit ' of Irish stuff, Sailor Duffy;, He was back m Sydney the Sunday morning after and on the train for Moree at 3.30 p.m. the same day. He was on . the trail of Frank Barrett, a South Coast lightweight, to whom Billy had .to concede 101 b, but was able to fight a hard twenty rounds and delight the people, as well as putting the game on a good footing m a new field fcr missionary work" of the kind. .AsKed for a return match.and if he could make 9.4, for Shields : only goes 8.11, Barrett refused, so on June 6 Shields met and defeated a very good boy named Billy Woods, of Newtown, Sydney, on points, m twenty rounds, and on June 18, race night, he stopped 'Woods m eleven rounds. The young New Zealander is m great form just now, and finds the twenty rounds-' trips suit him far better than the three and six round sprints m the metropolis; though the lad says he has never felt really right since he left the Dominion. A Narrabri syndicate has formed a country towns' circuit, and has proposed that Shields shall be their star performer and travel the circuit He thinks he win accept, as he, has made a great name for square ways and as a trier all the time, big offers having been received by him to "go down,'! and indignantly refused. Teddy Green has been asked if he will meet Shields and is expected to consent. The reason Billy adopted a norn de guerre was .that the man who got him to go up to 'fight at Moree had named him as McCabe, as he thought the man he wanted to oppose him to would jib at a Sydney fighter of some fame; and to oblige him, Billy adopted the monniker, and, now he has become so popular and respected that he is ashamed to confess to the deception. Shields expects to be back m New Zealand next summer.