POWELL DOWNED AGAIN

NZ Truth, Issue 538, 9 October 1915, Page 12

POWELL DOWNED AGAIN

Hughey Napier Proves a Good 'Un.

And Win* an Uphill Fight m Twenty. One Rounds. '

Mondaiy night being a great "outing" holiday night, -and . people having scarcely got home from the various resorts, there was not the crowd there might have been at the Sydney Amateur Gymnastic Club to see the Queensland lightweight champion fight Hugh Napier for £100 purse (75 and 25 per cent). Had the club members and their sporting friends known what a treat there was In the meeting, they ..would, have packed the building, which! as it was, was fairly filled.

Proceedings opened with a nice four rounds between the club page, "Peter Jackson, Junr.," and "Cosmos," the black aboriginal boy In buttons of the Australian Club. Peter had the best of It, the other being very Blow. A

► gentleman, a committeeman of the club, fearing that the fight proper might prove short and unsatisfying, put up a tenner, divided £S arJE £2, for Mick Dunn and Pablo FamJTie to box six rounds for. Mick dropped the aspiring smith m the first round, and almost repeated it, and for the rest of I the time got on pretty much at will, till Pablo's ponum was like a game of pyramids. At the conclusion, the referee, Mr. Broomfield, unhesitatingly gave the award to Dunn. Powell and Napier appeared at 5.50. The former had Jack Fuller, Jack Molloy, and Peter Ross m his corner, while Bateman, Mick Dunn, and Brown attended the Rocks lad. Powell's man lost the toss, and he had to go to the hoodoo comer — a corner from, which, I believe. l am justified m saving, only two winners have come since the club was inaugurated, and those were Joe Goddard against Dooley and George Dawson against Maber and Burge. The men were weighed, as m future all contestants will be, to prevent any more "clever" business, like the misleading report of Goddard's weight. Powell drew the beam at Bst 131 b, and Napier was 9st 21b. The men shaped for: — Round 1. — Napier stood inches over Powell, but was wretchedly underpinned. He looked a dangerous sort, however, and when. George went at him from the jump! hard and fierce, he responded with a dash that caused his friends ttr smile cheerfully, and •before the round was half over he brought his right across and put a fresco half an inch high on the corner of George's left eye. Napier also got' a few really convincing rights on the body. They exchanged savage blows on body and head with both hands, and smiled all the time, as if they both enjoyed it Immensely. Napier missed a lot Of well-meant left hooks, and was a bit wild m his deliveries. Round 2. — A very short spar, and Powell jumped m just as his great pupil does, left and right full on mouth and eye. Confused, Napier lunged out, but George slipped a foot on one side, shot the left on the nose, and swished the right across on the point and Napier staggered like a stunned goose. Like a tiger Powell sprang m and | smashed the right on the butt of the jaw, and Napier went right down like a code .He took lOs'ec, and was up to time wonderfully recovered, and Powell, apparently losing his head terribly, missed him again and again, and Napier, recovering: as t few men> could do, made it willing to the end. Round 3. — Powell ttibught he had his | man, and tried hard for a knock-out, but Napier managed to keep him off till corners,' and the Queenslander had lost his greatest chance through the most palpable want of levelheadedness or else ring knowledge. Round 4. — Napier came up strong again, and assumed the offensive, bounding m with left and right and getting both on, Powell meeting him with straight left jabs on the body. Napier sent a heavy right on the short ribs, ana tried it hard at the point, but missed. Napier sprang m again, and sent a terror at the point, but just missed, and Powell shot the left straight and the right on the ear just on corners. Round 6. — Powell sent m several lovely lefts on the face and swung a hot right on the ear. Napier went after the little 'un,,and fixing him on the ropes with the left smashed a beautiful right on the body. Powell m turn threw Hughey's guard and soaked a hard right up under the arm-pit. Backing out, the little Queenslander suddenly sprang' in and shot lext and right hard on chin and ear, and corners sounded. - Round 6. — Going close, Powell shot a left lightly on the eyebrow, and Napier, nothing loth, got close, and a sharp exchange followed, each man getting heavily on the last rib and looking triumphant. Powell stabbed twice with the left, and swung a nice right on the ear. He swished a lovely right on the heart, and Napier drove the left on his nose, and swelled it. Powell got angry and sent a nice left stab on' the bugle, and a sweet right inside the guard on to the jaw, and Napier staggered, and sparred off for wind, very tired, and his legs going back on him. Powell just missed the jaw on corners. Round 7. — There were good exchanges all through this round, and Napier's legs being very dicky, Powell tried hard to finish him, but failed, and really showed very poorly here. Round 8. — Napier came up as saucy as a cock sparrow, and met all George's attempts with rattling good counters. Presently he, out of a fierce rally, wrestled George to his knees and stood over him, refusing to let him rise, till called away by the referee. This made Powell very angry, and he rushed at Napier and soaked him three heavy rights on the body before corners were called. Round 9 saw Powell very effective, and he fairly buried Napier with hard * rights In the ribs and sent several, too far round, on the head, A quick loft stab on the swollen lips and a right cross on the jaw turned Napier round and staggered him. Like a hound on a wounded deer, George followed up his advantage, and struck Napier down, where he stayed lOsecs. He got up, and, as In the second round, fought wonderfully, considering, till corners just saved him. Round 10. — George stabbed a couple of lefts m the face, but when Napier rushed he went down rather suspiciously. This seems a disease with Powell, and iiu one can hint at wont of gamencss cither — it must be want of head. This was a hard and fast round, and much more even than the last, though Powell was still ahead. Round 11. — Vowell fiddled, and at length got his right on heavily behind tho ear. Ho scut a good left (lush on tho face, and copped a howling cross i counter on the swollen eye that cut \ the lump and sent him down for 10 sees. When he got up most of the time was taken up by Powell's dodging beautifully. Round 1-. — Powell's instructions were to use the left mid look out, and he stubbed four full on nose and mouth. They exchanged splendid rights on tho body, and attempts to get the right on occupied till corners. Kound J3 waa fust, Powoll crowding ilujjhcy on the ropes and hitting furiously. Ho'.s not Itiilf ho hard a hitter as ho was cracked up to be. Ho hail Napier In a tight place, however, amd ho the loan lud wrestled him down out of tho road, and, standing over him, caused him to nit down very sudden as he got up. Now, thcro was no excutio for either. Napier knows he ought to retire to his corner and Powell should have clinched If he did not

like the fix. He certainly went down without a blow, and yet these harebrained lads grumble and squeak if a referee does his plain duty and disi qualifies them. Towards the end of | the round Powell bent Napier double with a right on the short ribs, where an ugly red lump began to glare. Round 14. — Napier was chasing and Powell's slipping 1 away was so good as to several times evoke applause and roars . of laughter. Napier twice grazed posts with tremendous lunges he , launched at Powell, who shifted before they got there. In the loth they both sent the right across simultaneously and staggered each other. Then Powell drove his man to the ropes and punched him up and downstairs vigorously. In the 16th George forced the fighting, and landed right after right, but too high up to do much damage, though by this time Napier's left ear seemed cracked across and stood out waving m the ambient evening atmosphere like a broken leaf | left alone to linger on a" cabbage stump. Ho got donko m tho 17th, Powell staggering him with fine lefts, and a heavy right on the cheek. Blood trickled from his right eye ftnd his nose and mouth added their quota, j The seconding on both sides was good, j but Jack Puller sent his man. up every I time brand new, and as clean and dry as a young lady who has just completed her toilette, In the 18th Powell fought hard to win, and Napier bled freely and looked used up, his collar bones being painted angry red, and his face all Knobby. Powell carried ample evidences of Hughey's handiwork too, his nose being much enlarged and his eye up. Napier showed he was a dangerous man to go to, despite his evident weakness, for ha suddenly reached out, took the little man fairly on the jaw with the right and dropped him like a cock. He was up like a. shot, and belted Napier to a standstill before the end, but could not finish him. Round 19 was not very inspiring, but m the 20th George went m savagely, and getting his man on the ropes, dealt it out on head and body, and had his man very cronk and all but finished, on corners. Round 21 and last. — They began fast, and Powell In his eagerness got m and took what came, m his anxiety to end it. Ho drove Napier off with a red hot left, but retired from a rally bleeding freely from the cut on his eye. The blood ran into his eye, and he wiped it out with his glove, and while so engaged. Napier sprang at him. His get back was the fiftieth part of a second slow, and Napier's right landed fairly on the temple, cutting the cronk eye worse and knocking Powell flat down, where he lay apparently clean out. He struggled up on time, but met a right on the side of the head that hurled him head-first to the boards again. As the seconds were counted he crawled rapidly on his hands and knees to the ropes, pulled himself up by them, and hurled himself into the arms of his charging foe, hitting blindly left and right. He clung to Napier for time, but Sub-Inspector Potter, who had been restless for some time, told the referee to stop it, and that gentleman had no option but to grire the fight to Napier. There was no earthly reason, except a little blood, to cause the police to interfere, and it was doubly disagreeable just then. On previous points and effect Powell was well m the lead, and must have got the decision had the police put m their oar before that unlucky hit landed. As it stood then, with Powell smothered m the ruby and dazed, there was no option but tol declare the stronger man the winner. It was a splendid fight, but the Queenslander threw It away beyond a doubt, and had Grlffo had Napier m the groggy state Powell had him m the second and the ninth rounds, he would scarcely have come up for another. It j was a peculiarly significant ending, anyhow, as Napier by this win jumps from nowhere — absolutely nowhere — i to the second rung of the featherweight ladder, for he can fight feather easy enough. And yet if he meets Griff o I don't think he'll last five rounds. He ought not to have won this, but all the same he astonished all who saw him, and fought gallantly, fairly, and cleverly. He out-reached his opponent a lot, and had a lucky win. partly through that very fact. Napier went to America soon after this, and created there almost as much astonished comment as an Australian freak of nature, as did Shadow Maber, whom he greatly resembled m build, though he was even more shadowy thati the "Shadow"; who, as has been told, became a big, strapping man, and fought his last battle at about fourteen stone. Hughle came back to his native land; but I have not seen him for many years — he was always a quiet, retiring sort of cuss — so cannot say whether he also has put on weight with the years; or whether he has remained the lean, sinewy man he was m the days of his glory. Jack Kerr, the well-known and reputablo tailor-bookmaker, was Hughie's principal backer and firm friend, as he was Steve O'Donnoll's, uncle of that fine mid -heavyweight of to-day, Les O'Donnell, and he might be able to enlighten me as to Napier's present whereabouts and bodily presentment (To be Continued.)

Tho. man who thinks money will do anything, will do anything for money.