BOXING

Southland Times, Issue 23335, 20 October 1937, Page 14

BOXING

LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE The New Zealand light-heavyweight boxing title match, between Harold Reeve (holder) and Ern Jacobs (challenger), at Pahiatua, on October 29, promises to be one of the season’s best. Jacobs is determined to relieve the Pahiatua boy of the title, whilst Reeve is quietly confident of retaining it. Both men are in hard training. Colin Craib, of Timaru, and Tommy Loveridge, of Taranaki, will probably oppose each other in a fifteen-round encounter at Wellington on October 28. The match is an excellent one, and will be Craib’s first professional bout in Wellington. Loveridge is rugged and a crowd-pleaser. Six thousand boxing enthusiasts cheered Tommy Farr for the way in which he refereed the fight between Henry Cook, of Cleveland, an Baby Yack, of Toronto, the Canadian bantam champion, in Toronto, the other day. Critics remarked on Farr’s demonstration of the English custom of walking between the fighters when separating them ,as compared with the Canadian referees, who are suually content to break the men without actually passing between them. Desipte the fact that she is suing Mrs Dodge Godde for £400,000 for having alienated Jack Doyle’s affections, Judith Allen, film star, still hopes to win him back. Judith Allen secured a decree nisi from her boxer-singer husband in April. She declares that she will not apply for final papers if he will return to her. “I never intended the divorce to become final. I brought that suit as a last resort to save our marriage and to bring hi mto his senses. It was serving its purpose until Jack met Mrs Godde.” Doyle was once hailed as an English heavyweight hope.

SPECIAL AMATEUR BOUTS

The Southland Boxing Association has now completed the programme for its special amateur tournament at the Civic Theatre on Tuesday night. Altogether 10 bouts have been arranged. Some of the best amateur boxers in New Zealand will be competing. They include two New Zealand champions and a number of provincial champions. Except at a championship tournament it is doubtful if ever before the association has been successful in getting together in one tournament such an ar - ray of boxing talent. In the circumstances it is safe to say that a firstclass night’s boxing should be provided It will be the last tournament for the season, and it will probably be the last time the Southland boxing public will have the chance of seeing in action A. Sutherland, New Zealand middleweight champion, before the British Empire Games are held. Sutherland is looked upon as one of those certain to gain inclusion in the New Zealand team for the Games.

The programme for Tuesday night is as follows Special bouts—T. Denny (Southland welterweight champion) v. R. Baker (runner-up), A. Sutherland (Southland, Otago and New Zealand middleweight champion) v. T. Lister (Ashburton and New Zealand lightheavyweight champion), W. Campbell (former Southland lightweight champion) v. J. Ramsay, of Dunedin (Southland lightweight champion), W. Brown (Southland bantamweight champion) v. J. Smith (Rakaia), A. Cameron (Mokotua) v. W. Buckley (Dunedin). Other bouts.—W. Baker (Tuatapere) v. V. Ward (Winton), A. Lawton v. M. Ryan, W. Enwright (Mokotua) v. B. Baldwin (Tuatapere), J. Enwright (Mokotua) v. J. Robertson, D. Esplin (Ohai) v. W. McKenzie. Bouts were to have been arranged for C. Hayes, Otago heavyweight champion, and J. Lambert, of Ohai, but a suitable opponent could not be found for Hayes and Lambert, who was to have been matched against L. Greaney, of Dunedin, is going to Wellington for the summer. A. Brown, the Oamaru lightweight, has settled at Petone, and will be ready for professional contests in the near future. Brown left Oamaru in June and went to Australia, where he was matched against Mitchell and Brady in professional bouts. He was successful on each occasion. In 20 fights Brown has knocked out opponents 10 times, and won the decision seven times. LOUIS “FOOLED” BY FARR “Tommy Farr fooled me. He’s one game, tough fellow at fighting. Yes, England’s champion proved a full evening’s job, and my crown is doffed to him. “I am glad that he gave me a tough scrap, but I am perfectly satisfied with my showing. Unfortunately I hurt my right hand in the third round, otherwise I feel I might have knocked Tommy out inside five rounds. After jabbing Farr into position in the third, I cut loose with my first cannon shot of the fight, and it landed high, catching his head. Then I decided to use my left and rest my right. I feel that I won the fight and retained my title by beating Farr with jabs. “My hardest punch of the 15 rounds was a left hook which I landed in the fifth. It drove home with everything behind it. I knew Tommy was hurt, and I drove three more left hooks, one sinking into his body. It was then that I could have used my right hand if it had been sound. “Farr has a heart of flint. He is fearless and tough, yet I feel that I didn’t get a good shot at him. I never hit him as hard at any time as I hit Max Baer.

“Tommy is a good puncher—better than I figured. He didn’t hurt me badly at any time, but he caught me with some corkers. His hardest punch was a left hook in the sixth round, but it didn’t stun me. My right hand was bruised when we collided head-on in the eighth, but that did not bother me enough to count. They tell me that Fan- also bruised his right. He certainly waded in and threw it enough. Twice in the fifteenth round he caught me with overhand rights, although I was going away at the time and didn’t take the full force.” So declared Joe Louis in an interview with an Evening Standard representative after his bout with Tommy Farr in New York on August 31. WRESTLING TEAM FOR EMPIRE GAMES The announcement of the Dominion Wrestling Union’s nominees for the Empire Games at Sydney early next year is expected to be made following the half-yearly conference of delegates which is to be held in Wellington on October 26. The team will probably be accompanied by a trainer and a manager and these official have also yet to be appointed. So far as the team is concerned it will very largely select itself, being confined to the winners of titles at the recent Dominion championships. There is a feeling, however, says The Evening Post, that R. W. Hutcheson, who was unable to compete in the Dominion tournament owing to an injured hand, should be given a chance to meet J. F. Genet (Canterbury), the featherweight champion. Hutcheson has sp long been outstanding in his class that it would neither be fair to him, nor to the team as a whole, if he were not given a hcance to win his way into the party.

IMPORTANT OFFICE The position of trainer is an important one and for this oiffee it is impossible to overlook the claims of Anton Koolman, the well-known Wellington tutor ,who has an outstanding record in the training of Dominion champions. Koolman has had wide experience of amateur wrestling, having been a competitor at the Olympic Games at Paris in 1924 and a triple Australian champion a year or so later. He is not only a practical coach but is also an invaluable second who is quick to detect in the opposition nay weakness which his charge would be well advised to exploit, or any danger spots from which she should keep clear. The mission to the Games is the most important one to date in New Zealand amateur wrestling, and it is essential that the best possible team and the most suitable officials should be sent. Negotiations for the “natural” match of the closing stages of the present season, the Earl McCready-“Lofty” Blomfield Empire title clash, are still pro ceeding and it is becoming evident that the Australian interests who want to stage it will have to make a substantial bid for it if they are to succeed. The New Zealand Association which is mainly interested and which is in the best position to make the wrestlers a suitable offer is Auckland. It is understood that the Auckland Association is prepared to put up a purse of £l5OO for

an open-air match early in November. The dates in view are November 6 and 13, more probably the former.