BADMINTON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18008, 19 November 1926, Page 10

BADMINTON.

A FAST, EXCITING G^ME. This coming game provides plenty of room for skill and hours of healthful exercise. The ideal game for lawns of limited size. Inquiries welcomed from prospective players. Complete sets for four players, comprising 4 racquets, 4 shuttlecocks, net, poles, ropes,. runners, pegs and rules, complete in box, from £6 10s. Equipment can also be had separately. W. H. Tisdall, Ltd., Sporting Goods Specialists, 91, Cashel Street West. 6

Racing at Hokitika, December 27 and 28. Nominations close December 8. Fit in your Xmas holiday jaunt for a trip to the Coast. t The Coast for ft holiday. *• -&

dangerous as he ever was, but if beaten it would be said that he was but a shadow of his former self.” After reading opinions before the fight and experts’ reports on the fight itself, one is forced to this conclusion: Dempsey certainly had lost some of his old-time fighting power, but the critics quite overlooked the fact that in Tunney he was meeting by far the most able opponent he had ever faced, that Tunney had made tremendous advance in fighting skill, and that he simply declined to permit Dempsey to fight on the lines which had enabled Dempsey to win and hold the championship. That is the position in a nutshell. Too much has altogether been made of Dempsey’s alleged decadence, and too little has been credited to Tunney for what was a magnificent display under conditions which might well have unnerved any man. The following is a section of Thomas Rice’s report, arid it is well worth reading by followers of the game:— The most remarkable feature of the contest was the complete transformation in Tunney’s fighting spirit. Never before had he shown real aggresisveness. On the contrary, he had always been over-cautious. Last night it was plain he had drawn up a definite plan of battle, which was to launch right hooks and right uppercuts at Dempsey on all occasions. Tunney followed this plan strictly, and eight right hooks and one right uppercut reached Dempsey's head in the first round alone. Those blows told the tale of Dempse3 r ’s inadequacy. Dempsey never was a first-class boxer. He never had a defence against a right hand. Willard. Brennan, Tom Gibbons, and Firpo, all reached his head easily with the right hand, as did Tommy Loughran and even inferior sparring partners who helped Dempsey to prepare for last night’s fight. Dempsey has always known of this weakness in his armour, but it had stood proof against all assaults. He figured on taking an opponent’s right as the prelude to getting in one of his own battering punches. Tie underestimated Tunney’s right. He counted, as usual, upon taking it, and responding with a deadly left to the body. That once-famous left was by no means deadly last night. Further, Tunney hit much harder than Dempsey expected. What is more, Tunney, by clever defence to in-fighting, tied up Dempsey almost completely and prevented him from getting in wicked, weakening, short-arm blows with the left and then switching the same hand high on the head. Tunney also interrupted Dempsey’s famous rushes by beating him to the punch with a right hook or uppercut, and throwing him out of his stride. Contrary to expectations, Tunney never got confused or panicky when Dempsey did succeed in reaching him with a hard punch. He kept his head throughout and in all circumstances, and adhered strictly to his plan to box his man cleverly and to keep to open work as much as possible. Dempsey had boasted—or was said to have boasted—that while sparring partners had hit him with rights to the head they always . hit him as he was going away—meaning that he was moving his head back as the punches landed. But here we saw Tunney several times take the aggressive, step into Dempsey with both left and right hooks, and compel him to cover up or break ground. Dempsey was defeated, but he does not stand disgraced. He tried desperately and failed—failed because three years of idleness had weakened his punch and dimmed his judgment of distance, but the loss of his punch was the most serious defect. He had less tape, and none of it hard tape, on his hands than in any previous big contest, but it is doubtful if that circumstance caused his feeble hitting. He was largely the victim of his own failings, due to the causes stated, but do not let us belittle Tunney’s achievement. lie fought a gallant, a clever, and a consistent battle, and won strictly on his merits. Do not believe any tales that Dempsey’s fighting was affected by worries over law-suits and stop-the-fight agitations. Tunney beat him all right—with some assistance from Father Time. Tunney had the whole American Expeditionary Force backing him to beat the champion, whose former manager, Jeack Kearns, is reported to have backed Tunney to the extent of many thousands of dollars; but Tunney seemed totally unaffected by the knowledge that he was carrying the money and hopes of so many of his war-time friends.

That he carried the responsibility so care-free and that he was unaffected by Dempsey’s reputation and the vast crowd of 132,000 spectators astonished me. Tunney’s defeat of Dempsey was surprising, but Tunney himself is even more surprising.