Leaves Of A Sport Folio

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1935, Page 12

Leaves Of A Sport Folio

'T’HE members of the Gisborne Boxing Association who • are advocating that what they call private promotion of boxing contests be permitted in New Zealand either have a naive faith in human nature or else are ignorant of boxing history. What they call “private” promotion is, of course, not private at all; it is the promotion of public contests for the pecuniary benefits of individuals. Such a promotion is private only insofar as that what the pro•moter does with his part of the profits of a Contest is entirely, his aftair. Under the law which exists in New -Zealand boxing contests may be promoted only by associations of men who Jo not benefit pecuniarily and personally fherefrom; any profits from the sport must go back into the sport. The con-' trol of the sport in this country is. amateur, even though professional contests are arranged under it, z

It is scarcely likely that .the law will be altered as the Gisborne Association desires. Yet the proposal should not be allowed to come before the New Zealand Boxing Association -without unyielding opposition from the ’other affiliated, associations which are better informed' on the subject than the Gisborne body. The promotion of boxing, contests by individuals for their own profit has produced the most spectacular bouts that the world has known, but it has also been accompanied by gross evils. Even the scandals of those prize-ring days in which many contests sprang from the wagering of patrons of men who were practically “kept’ boxers had - nothing more objectionable than some of the evils which have accompanied the professional promotion of matches.

The calibre and character of professional promoters of boxing should be judged in the average, not by the few who have won fame and respect. The average professional promoter is iiqt a man to be entrusted with the Welfare of bdXihg. There is no reason to believe that the main censes of New Zealand would prdduce promoters-of; a higher class than do cities, of similar size in countries where boxing, is more popular. Men of the type required, and with sufficient financial Usually find more scope for their taletits in other directions. The Gisborne Boxing Association may reply, that iv is thinking less of sole promoters than of .small syndicates. But the objections hold good in such a case, too. Indeed, {n some instances syndicates-Ijave been Worse than sole promoters.

In boxing, New Zealand is so unimportant a country that permitting ’private” promotion of matches would not improve the state of affairs. A sense of perspective is necessary in dealing with this question. Prpfessional boxing in Sydney, for example, is not flourishing nearly as much as it was before the Great War, but it is in quite a good condition in comparison with that in similarly-sized-cities in the United States and England. So, when one consders that the average population Of the principal four cities of New Zealand is, roughly, about a ninth of Sydney’s, and then that this, bne-nirith is separated into four areas’ hundreds of milts apart, so that a . professional boxer in this country has to do a great deal of travelling .to have enough fighting to enable him to live on it, it floes not seem that New Zealand is so badly off, in this matter, in relation to other boxing countries. * *

Except when the visiting boxers are men of world-wide fame, contests between good local, products are the most popular. Inevitably, though, when a New Zealand professional boxer attains really good “class” he goes abroad, in the hope of earning more money in centres of population much larger than any in the Dominiori. Then some fofm of compensation for this loss, in visits by over Seas boxers of good class, has to be sought. But, for various reasons, the better-class of boxers of other countries are not travelling from America and Europe to Australia, or from Australia to New Zealand, as much as they did many years ago. There is a decline in the general standard of professional boxing abroad —a decline which, whatever the contributing factors may be,, has occurred under the very system of promotion advocated by the Gisborne Assdciatiori.

The boxing associations in New Zealand simply have - not the Opportunities now to be as enterprising in engaging overseas boxers as they had once, and that loss of opportunity is reacting unfavourably upon the general standard of the game in the Dominion; the standard needs the occasional stimulants, the readjustment of values, that such visits gave it. But the New Zealand associations should' not be blamed for something which is beyond their control. -K- ■sr -S If it were adopted, the Gisborne proposal would not be likely to bring any competent and desirable promoters into business in the Dominion. It would, instead,' tend toward the sprmgmg-up of such “mushroom” promoters of poor

fights as have been the bane cf professional boxing in; some other parts of the world. - \ ’ 'T'HERE are some people who do not ■ think that late tackling in club Rugby in New Zealand is any more prevalent than in former years. Pos- ; sibly it is not, but no one. can bear exact testimony to its variations of in-■. cidence;-statements on the subject are very much more a matter of impres- . sions than of evidence. However, whether or not there is more late tackling than existed ip previous years really is beside the point. That it has existed in other seasons, or that it can never be wholly eradicated, is ria excuse for failure to try to repress .it this season. The important point is that the Mam agement Committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union considers that; there is enough of this unfair play tb warrant' its asking all of its affiliated unions: to request their referees to deal severely with it. .That committee is sufficiently - in touch with club Rugby, especially in the North Island, to know what it is talking about in this instance.

Club coaches and other Officials can do much toward elimination of the trouble. The. most drastic remedy, though, lies in the powers of referees, and obviously the New Zealand Rugby Union wishes that referees would apply it. Unfortunately, there are many players. many more spectators, and even some referees, who do not comprehend just what a referee should do.to check late tackling. Most of the late tackling is of a player Who has just kicked the ball. It is especially dangerous in such an instance, because the player who is tackled is caught off his balance and is unable to “save ‘ himself” in falling. Illegal tackling of this kind is specially dealt with in the laws of the gaine. The referee is required to give the opposing team, at its option, a penalty kick at the place of infringement or at the place where the ball alights. Referees who exercise that law properly seldom have to use it more than twice or thrice in a game. Unfortunately, some referees call for a scrummage at the spot where the ball alights, instead of giving a penalty kick there. There is. moreover, another law of the game which has to be read in con- « 1 junction with that just quoted. It is the law dealing with foul play and misconduct. Among the acts which are specified as foul play are illegal tackling, pushing, charging, or obstructing; For any foul play or misconduct the referee is required to award a penalty kick at the place of infringement; there is a provision in this rule subjecting it to the operation of the. previous rule ■ regarding the wilful charging dr-obstruc-tion of a player who has just kicked the ball. But the referee’s'duty 1 does pot i end wjth the awarding of a penalty kick. The law requires him either to caution the offending nlayer or to order him off. for a first offence, and it adds: For the seebnd offence it MUST order him off.” '

W | ** 'invariably, when this question of late tackling or illegal charging is being discussed in any football circle, someone remarks that it is not aways Possible for a man who is about to tackle the player with the ball to- change his action if thfe opposing player has kicked _ the ball just before the moment of impact. Such a contribution to the discussion betrays ignorance of the law; the word “wilfully” is used in the first of the two laws to which reference has been maae in these notes, and the word illegal in the other. Any competent referee should < be able to tell when a player cannot help making a late tackle. A £,c