BOXING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21920, 4 April 1933, Page 4

BOXING

PROFESSIONAL CONTEST LOWE BEATS CROFT The professional boxing contest between Bert Lowe of Dunedin (11.5) and Tom Croft of Greymouth (11.5) drew a large crowd to the Town Hall last night. Mr F. J. Campbell was the announcer, Mr J. Kilmarten the referee, and Messrs S. Brown, and T. Long the timekeepers. The contest was of 15 rounds, each of three minutes, and it went the full distance, Lowe, who was making his first appearance as a professional, winning on points. The decision was not received with the best of grace by a section of the spectators. The fight did not provide much open work, and for the first 10 rounds it was a rather colourless affair. Croft was the taller man, and used an effective crouch and smother when coming into a clinch and infighting. The West Coast man was mostly content to let Lowe lead to him for the first 10 rounds, and this cost him the fight. Lowe was very quick with his short arm punches, but Croft prevented most of the blows taking full effect with his crouch and smother. He, however, was letting Lowe do most of the leading, and then the pair would go to infighting. Lowe had piled up a heavy margin of points at the tenth round, when Croft commenced to open out, and he was particularly good with a left hand rip to the body. Lowe, however, using good footwork and sound ringcraft, was making his opponent miss. Croft won the eleventh round well. He scored with a good left and right to the head as the pair came together, and then drove Lowe to the ropes. Solid punching by both men followed in infighting. Croft again carried the fight to Lowe in the twelfth round, and had the advantage in the infighting, and his smother and blocking were preventing Lowe from connecting with full effect. The pair were quickly .together at the opening of the thirteenth round, and hard infighting followed. They then stood toe to toe, bringing the spectators to their feet by the vigour of their punching. It was only a brief spasm, however, and the two men then hammered away at each other in infighting, Croft doing the better work. This was the best round so far, and was won by Croft. Most of the fighting in the following two rounds was confined to close body punching, in which Lowe’s short arm work was very vigorous, though it did not appear to carry the weight of the close work of the rugged West Coaster. Croft adopted bad tactics. He allowed Lowe to get too far ahead on points in the earlier rounds, and then his winning margins in the following rounds which went to him were not sufficient to wipe off the deficit. BUCKLEY AND JONES DRAW. The preliminary contest between 0. Buckley, of Dunedin (9.3), and 0. Jones, of Oamaru (8.13 J), was of 10 rounds, each of three minutes. Mr Don Paterson was the referee, and at the finish of a sterling fight he declared the fight a draw—a decision which met with the full approval of the spectators. The two boxers started at a speed which gave the impression that they would have to slow up before the end of the tenth round, but this did not prove to be the case. The pair showed excellent footwork, and used both hands with judgment. Jones had the longer reach, but Buckley had the better footwork, and this enabled him to counteract the advantage of reach possessed by the Oamaru youth. Jones was the cleaner puncher, and ho used an effective lefthand blow to the face. Both men were inclined to miss at times in their eagerness to score, but they were always keen to carry the fight on. More than once Jones connected with a heavy right swing to the head, but Buckley—who showed a vast improvement on his fighting when the pair met at His Majesty’s Theatre a few weeks ago—was always willing to fight back. Jones has a good stance in the ring, • facing his man squarely in a manner reminiscent of the well-known boxer Pete Sarron. It was a really fine exhibition of clean, two-handed fighting, with good ringcraft, by both men, and the spectators showed their appreciation by loudly applauding the boxers at the end of each round. Jones’s clean, lefthand punches may have brought him the victory, but under the circumstances it can be said with fairness that the plucky battle was fully worthy of a draw.