CROUSE V. SMITH.

NZ Truth, Issue 580, 29 July 1916, Page 11

CROUSE V. SMITH.

A Terrific Fight.

The matching of brilliant Dave Smith' with the rugged, taher and heavier American mid-heavy. Buck Crouse, created a great amount of interest and was the subject of considerable conversation and argument m all sporting centres for two weeks past, writes "Truth's" Sydney Stadium ringside rep.: ■ Many argued that because Darcy, knocked Crouse out m less than a round. Smith, who went twelve rounds with the world's champion, must.necesearily beat Crouse easily. It was a poor argument; for any student of the game knows that there is no such, thing as logical deduction In ooxing matters; and though Crouse was defeated almost Ignominlously by the East Maitiand miracle, he showed dash and a punch during even that short fight, and subsequently went to Melbourne and proved that -he is a boxer by defeating- on points the really clever Mick King, a man who takes a devil of a lot of beating on points, be it said, A fine strapping man of 26, and close on 6ft, Crouse may be said to have had every, natural ftyivantage over ftwrith, 30 years and 6ft Kn. ' ', "■ ■■■*' *"'''■- The hungriest, most bloodthirsty Kn »uld not have asked for a more stirIng, enthralling fight for bis- money. ! from referee Scotfs first shout of "box >n -to the moment Smith swung past , fcrouge, by the impetus of his own Avoided right swing,~as the bell rang at ?tbe end of the ninth round, and st&g--tfared, semi-blinded with- blood, to Us the pace was terrific and the Shitting tremendous; while the very forge crowd was kept m an almost ungbroken wild surge of excitement 1 f 'Smith made one big mistake m enI'deavoxtng to knock out m short order Sa man -whose reputation for cast-iron a endurance Is world-famous. He saw 8 Darcy do it and evidently thought that ■•tie could repeat tho trick; overlooking the facts that Darcy hits with either Pianolike a Wood colt Wckmg, M that f Grouse was half licked by nervous ! dread when tie entered the ring to face- § tbe champion end that he himself was f never a knock-out specialist at his best: t He could, batter and bang bigger men i; into collapse, as he did such stalwarts as i Jack Howard and CoUn Bell: but to do :. even that to Back Crouse, famous for' ;! his toughness and. the possession of a ! noted punch himself, would have been, I tax astounding feat at his best; whereI «a this tfaia Jxe was past his best m § years and by no means at his recent. * best In the matter of condition. His terf lible gruelling at the hands of Darcy £ was only three weeks old; the wound X anstatned In that desperate battle had i not healed and wati reopened nearly cv- " try time he.apaxxed, so as to practically

prevent serious boxing boutsjsamdrc£in--J ally, a "come-back" of thirty, keyed up for several months and then perforce relaxed, needed much more time to train to concert pitch again. Maybe Pave .thought 'Ms .'condition might not last, and t^ia^lt^ould be well to tear his.man to pieces m short order If he wanted to win-atrall; maybe toe underrated Crouse's toughness, mental as- well, as physical, and wished to chuck a scairfe Into him so*~as to render flattening. Jaftxu out an easier task. Whatever he reckoned writer, reckons that if this superb boxer. Smith, had gone about the thing differently, especially when he found [that he could not get the big fellow, ana boxed him m the open, he would m all probability have won on points. For, if he -hadn't gqt fthat fearful butt on the eye that opened it so badly, to add to the handicap of the damaged nose he took into the- ring with him, there is scarcely any doubt but that he would have stayed the twenty, and well out-pointed the bigger and younger man; well and all as Buck f ought— --for fight well, he undoubtedly did, most of ' the time, though there were moments when he thought hewas. sent for, and showed it m his face and actions.

In the in-fighting he basted Smith completely, his left hand being his best weapon m this department; a few hooks when breast to breast being amazingly .hard and the uppercuts severe, while he worked "the Shamrock" overtime. Smith's form, however, even at the end, was such as to more than suggest that had not that, fierce bump from the Yankee's hea-d badly opened his le£t brow, and under the eye, Just before the end of the seventh round, he would have been returned the winner. All throughout the eighth session the ruby ran down into that eye, and he took more than one punch while trying to wipe it away with his glove.