HOPES TO GET A FAIR DEAL IN NEW YORK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18092, 28 February 1927, Page 11

HOPES TO GET A FAIR DEAL IN NEW YORK.

WILLIE MACKIE SAYS HE IS NOW FED UP. CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS OF SATURDAY NIGHT’S TROUBLE AT STADIUM. "I’m fed up. It’s a rotten business from beginning- to end- O’Shea refused to ride against me.’’—Willie Mackie. "I’d never rid® against that fellow again. Mackie’s shown what ho is. I’m sick of it all. Ho wouldn't race. I waited, but lie wouldn’t come.”—Phil O’Shea. “My son didn’t get a fair go. Ho never doe?. There’s dirty work going on somewhere. There was an agreement whereby ho could object to a pace-maker if lie did not favour him. Ho merely exorcised his right.”—J. G. Maokie, tfen. ‘‘There was no agreemen t giving power to Maokie or to O'Shea to object to a pace-maker. TChat’s not right.”—Mr Alex Forbes, director of the English Park Stadium Company. Those are a few of the conflicting statements given today when inquiries were made with a view to throwing some light on Saturday night’s trouble .at the stadium, when the match race between W. Afackie and P. O’Shea was declared off after the first distance. When approached this morning,

llllllliillilllllllllllllllirffllfflliilN Alackie heaved a deep sigh, and said: “I’m getting out of it. I’ve-had enough. I’ve put up with a lot. I stuck out for my rights on Saturday night, but I got so fed up in the end that I was prepared to race O’Shea under any conditions. But he wouldn’t come out.

Mackie’s Version. "Goodman and Mills were to have been the pacers in the second heat. I was sitting by Goodman' and I heard one of the officials say to him: ‘Are you ready?’ I turned to Goodman, and said: ‘Are you pacing in tjhis heat?' and he said ‘Yes.’ I said that was all right. When I went over to my mark, however, I found Lc Fevre talking to Mills.' I asked him if he were p at -'mg\ and he said ‘Yes.’ I said: 4 Well, I’m not going to ride.’ I told the officials that I would sooner lose the match thaai have a man on the same make of bicycle as O’Shea pacing me. They said: ‘Come off, then, and we’ll put the next race on.’ "I went round to my room, and Moffat, Johns and -Forbes. t.he Stadium directors, cam© arnunri to see me. They wanted to know what war. wrong. They said: ‘He is all right, isn't he?’ I said: ‘He may be all right, but he is riding

the same make of bicycle as O’Shea and that is no good, j want an outsider to ride with Alills.’ . His Conditions. “I said to them: ‘lf you put Le Fevre on the first lap. and Alills on the last lap. I will ride; but if Le Fevre takes the last lap, I won’t ride. They said : ‘We’ll fix it.’ I wont out to my mark again and I found that Lc Fevre was insisting on taking the last lap. I said: ‘He’ll take the first or I won’t ride.’ ‘‘After a further argument. however, I decided to ride against even these odds, and went cmi to the track to find that O’Shea wouldn’t come on. I offered to ride him over half a mile with a pacer or a quarter of a mile unpaced, but he would not take me up. It was really 1 who called the match off, and not the officials. I refused to ride with the. pacer selected. There were fifty other riders to choose from, and from all these they had to choose a rider with the same make of bicycle as O’Shea, and what was more a personal friend of his- " There is an undercurrent somewhere. I think they don’t want O’Shea to be beaten. I’m going to New York, where I hope to get a fair deal. “ I signed up to race O'Shea on the condition that if I won I was to race an overseas rider on ‘March 5. I think I can claim Saturday night’s race, and also claim the right, to meet an overseas rider on March 5." “ Through With Him.” “ There was no written agreement for that match,” said Phil O’Shea. “ And what is more, there was no agreement giving either of us power to object to the pace-makers. That’s all rot. I never refused to race Alackie. lie never offered to nacc me, after he made his first refusal. He stuck out and would not race. If he had been prepared to race on Saturday night, the race would have come off. But he wasn't. I’m through with him. I don’t want anything more to do with the fellow.” “You print in the paper that we went off under police protection,” said Air J. G. Alackie. “ We didn’t need any police protection. Look here, we were brought up in a country where if you called a man a liar, there was something doing. Someone called out: ‘ You're yellow, Maclcie,’ on Saturday night, and something happened. Billy is fit. lie can do anything.

Fixing Matters. “ I was approached, when sitting in the grandstand, and asked if I would go and see if I could fix matters up. 1 went round the back. It was then that the scuffle ensued. Billy was stripped ready to ride. Sooner than disappoint the public, he was ready to ride under any conditions. O’Shea wouldn’t go on with it then. This is what l want to know: Tf there was nothing at. Ihe back of it all, why did Lc Fevre. insist on being a pacer? Why did he insist, on taking the. last lap? "There were fourteen better men than T,e Fevre in the half-mile open. Why was Le. Fevre, then, chosen? Le Fevre is O'Shea's room-mate at the Stadium He. rides the same make of bike as O’Shea, and he trains with O'Shea. “ Nothing Said " Billy was told by the referee that, he must keep inside the pole. line, when in the lead O’Shea led outside the pole line for the last two hundred yards on Saturday night. He was well outside. But . there ■was nothing

said about it. Air Walter, chairman of the centre, admits that. He said that it was hard to take the comers. Well, if the rule can’t be carried out, why make it?

“ What did Bob Spiers and Harris Ilorder say when they were here? They said that the judging at English Park was a farce. They w'erc right, too. What do they need two pacemakers for? Tell me that. They’ve been satisfied with one in the past. Why two on Saturday night?”

W. MACKIE STATES HIS SIDE OF THE CASE. To the Editor. Sir, —For the last time I take up my pen and. through the medium of your paper, air my grievances to the piiblie in general and sports committees in particular, in giving a true accounjt of the happenings at English Park Stadium. In my agreement and contract to race O’Shea in a match race, the following condition was distinctly agreed on before witnesses between the English Park Stadium and myself: That, if I objected to a pacer, or if O’Shea objected to a pacer, another would have to be found. So lap. so good. Now’, at Alonica Park on Felv ruarv 5. in my match against he objected to Carey making the pace, and he was replaced |)v Alarra. On Saturday- night I objected to Le Fevre making the pace (who, by the way, rides the same machine as my opponent, and is practically room-mate with him), and what happened? My objection was squashed, as all my objections are, and not only was he to pace*. but he was to take us the last lap aind a half. Why was this so? I was 'quite satisfied to see him take the first lap and leave Mills to the last lap, and his performance in the first heat was quite satisfactory. Anyway, I was told that Goodman was to pace along with* Alills in the second heat, and at the last minute, when I was ready to gpt on my mark, I find that a friend df my opponent was to do the pacing. Now, sir, it ought to be fairly* obvious to an understanding and educated public that there is something behind all this. Since I was 16* years -off age, four years ago, I have been riding wheel for wheel with O'Shea, and now, when I am confident of success, obstacles arc put in my way to prevent me from proving whether I am a faster sprinter than he is. For the public’s sake I decided to race against even these odds, and went on to the track, only to see my opponent take -fibe op port-unity or excuse to get off t track and refuse to come, on again (all hough T offered to race him a half-mi If*, with one pacer on), thereby causing dissatisfaction among the public and. giving them the idea that, the fault, mine. To those who ha\e knowledge of cvcle racing, and who have followed my career as a racing cyclist, Sihe reason is obvious 'However. Saturday night's issue was never in dotfi-u T know 1 am a faster man than O’Shea, and all but O’Shea's supporters will admit it As far as I am concerned, there is no answer to this, nor will I again take up my pen in such ai useless cause To use a I am “ fed up ” —I am, etc..

W. C. G.