THE BANTAMS.

NZ Truth, Issue 604, 13 January 1917, Page 11

THE BANTAMS.

. , At the Sydney Stadium. There was a.laTge crowd at the Sydney Stadium on Saturday, night, December 30, to see the very young Vic-' torian bantam, 16-years-old Andy Maguire, essay to wrest the bantam championship laurels from the brows of their wearer, Vincent Blackburn, of Balmain (Sydney)y--The Melbourne kid mode a grand effort, but, he wasn't quite good enough, and though refeTee Arthur Scott gave him a draw, as a matter of fact, Blackburn much more than successfully defended his title, he won the .fifth by a good margin and should have got the verdicj:, beyond a doubt. ■'„'. Maguire showed that he is an apt pupil of the Jem' Mace school, and has, evidently been grounded m the art by his father, who, back In the eighteen nineties, was a clever exponent himself, and by his brother Mick, one of the prettiest boxers of this era. His right guard is quite a treat to watch, . and he took scores of , Blackburn's snappy lefts on the glove. His footwork Is rather good, too, and he is the possessor of a very fast and effective right cross, a punch. that several times sent the champion spinning just as he stepped to drive the left! Clever and remarkably game kid as ho is, the older chap quite overshadowed him m the matter of fight, and was quite as clever with head, feet and hands. It is' only a few weeks ago that referee Scott justified a questioned verdict by saying: <r Why, so and so did all the fighting: the other fellow is Just like Jeff Smith, a purely defensive boxer, who'll never force a rally or go after his man. TJhe man who makes the fight gets my verdict every time. Fancy if we got two defensive boxers m the ring together; why we'd have no fight. The thing would be a farce." ! Y,et on Saturday . night Blackburn forced the fighting m every round but the first part of the twentieth, when the youngster went pluckily. for a knock-out, but was soon tamed by heavier artillery; three parts of the

whole hour he was pursuing Maguire, and he landed at least twelve blows for every one got home by Andy, while his defence was at times the cause of ro-ars of cheering. And still the best Scott would give him was a draw. "Consistency, thou art a jewel!"

Blackburn scaled 8.3, and Maguire 5.3%.