GENERAL SPORTS ITEMS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19803, 19 May 1934, Page 16

GENERAL SPORTS ITEMS

Spectators at a boxing match at Lille (France), angered at the referee’s decision, broke up the stadium furniture and set fire to it. Only once in 105 years has a heavier man than P. R. S. Bankes, Oxford’s No. 5. rowed in the annual boat race. ' Bankes is 14st 81b. In 1829 J. J. Too- * good (14st. 101 b) had the same seat in the Oxford boat. When Jack Dempsey annihilated Jess Willard at Toronto (U.S.A.) to win world’s heavyweight championship in 1919 the thermometer registered 116 at the ringside. “Fatty” Lamb (he now weighs 13.2 as against his former weight of 11.4) has launched out in a cycling business on his own account. Lamb ranks with Cecil Burness as the most popular Australian cyclist to visit New Zealand. An English writer says it is understood that professional cricketers taking part in the forthcoming test matches against Australia will receive £4O per match and the twelfth man £3O. Umpires will be paid £25 a match. Amateur players will receive £2 expenses daily. Walter Neusel, front rank German heavyweight intends becoming a' naturalised American. Walter has a Jewish manager. The Nazis ordered Neusel to get rid of him. The fighter refused, and then it was just too bad for the lad in his own country. Hitler is certainly the big Hit in Germany. The way of the boxing promoter is hard. One, Jefferson Peake, who promoted the Petersen-Pettifer heavyweight fight in 1932, and thereby landed in the bankruptcy court, has been engaged in law suits ever since. He had promised Petersen £ISOO, and j Pettifer £SOO, win or lose. Petersen won, but both he and Pettifer lost. So did the promoter. Hence the law suits and bankruptcy. One of Australia’s greatest sprinters, J. J. McGarrigal, died at Brisbane early last month. McGarrigal once won the famous Botany Handicap off a small mark and was rated as being only slightly inferior to Charlie Samuels the great aboriginal sprinter. On the night he won the Botany Handicap McGarrigal ran the 126 yards in 6i yards under “evens” and this on a wet night when the track was under water! This was from a standing start. The Madison Square Boxing Club lost £6OOO over the promotion of the recent Carnera-Loughran championship fight at Maimai, Florida. Jack Dempsey fought to gates of £40,000, £130,000, £380,000 and £553,000 in successive championship matches has never drawn more than £14,000. The novelty of giantism has gone. The news that at least one pair of women players from England will visit Australia next year during the Melbourne centenary celebrations, has caused a deal of satisfaction. Mrs Whittingstale (Eileen Bennett), who favours shorts, is said to be available, and Miss Dorothy Round, who took a set from Mrs Moody (Helen Wills), is another probable, while a third is the left-handed Miss M. (Peggy) Scriven, who partnered Crawford and won the mixed championship of France last year. English boxing scribes complained that American heavyweights were running out of matches with Jack Pettifer, because they were afraid of the Britisher’s punch. Dan Parker, witty columnist of the New York Mir- • ror, commented thusly: “Any Ameri- j can boxer who has seen Pettifer in action knows that the only fear he need have in an encounter with the big slow-poke, is the fear of killing him with a left jab.” The increasing popularity of cricket in Canada is shown by the announcement that Arthur Mailey, the former Australian test cricketer, has been commissioned by the Southern Newspapers Group, which controls the newspapers in a chain of towns across Canada, to write special articles covering the forthcoming test matches between Australia and England. TREAT POSSIBLY IN STORE. Though there are probably difficulties in the way, it would be a rare treat for New Zealand boxing enthusiasts if arrangements could be made for the team of American professionals at present in Australia to appear in the Dominion on their return journey, and it is rumoured that negotiations are in progress to bring this about. It is understood that one of the principal difficulties lies in the fact that the Americans’ contract with the National Boxing Club of Australia prevents their boxing in New’ Zealand, but it is believed that some members of the team refused to sign the contract. Two of the team which passed through Wellington in February have already returned home, and those still in Australia are:—Westley Ramey, lightweight; “Speedy” Dado, bantamweight; “Star” Frisco, bantamweight; Varias Milling: “Tiger” Roy Williams, middleweight; and Joe Ghouly, lightweight.