BOXING. —: »

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 582, 10 August 1909, Page 6

BOXING.

I . THE NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL. (By Telenraph.—l'rcae ABBoclatlon.l Chrlstchuroh, August 9. At tho last meeting of the Now Zealand Boxing Council correspondence was received dealing with the Burns tour through the Dominion. The secretary reported that he had. communicated the tenor of the correspondence to the local associations, and it was decided that, as the'local associations had been placed in possession of all information at tho disposal of tho council, further 1 action by the council vivas unnecessary. An'application for the reinstatement ag an amateur of J. Ferns, of Invercargill, was received from tho Southland Association. The applicati°n was granted,, as the facts . showed that Ferns had lost his status through ignorajioo of the rules: The Horowhenua Association wrote Asking the council to endorse the_ disqualification of - Person, who, after asking the association to arrange a match for - him, had failed to put in an appearance on the night selected for the contest, and had refused to give any explanation of his conduct. It was decided to refer the matter to the ■Wellington Centre: The Otago Association .wrote protesting against tho action of the Selection Committee in not including a 'middle-Weight in the team to represent New Zealand* in the Australasian championships; It was decided'that the'matter was one that could only be dealt with by the selectors. The Soiithland Association forwarded a resolution of its' committee expressing surprise at Ryan, not being selected as New, Zealand representative in .the Australasian hoavy-weight championship, and asking the Selection Committee's reason for passing Ryan over: It was decided that tpo fcouncil had no power to ask the Sclcc-' tion Committee for reasons for selecting or refusing candidates for inclusion in' the New Zealand team. The. secretary of the Now South Wales .Sports ,Club wrote, that September 25 and 27 had been definitely: fixed as the-dates for deciding the Australasian championships. | , THE BURNS DISPLAY. There was a Vood Attendance at the Opera House'last night, when "Tommy" Burns, ex-heavy-weight champion ' boxer of tho world, inaugurated the series of' displays which he has arranged to givo throughout the Dominion. Among the onlookers wfere a number of ladies, who appeared to evince keen interest in. the proceedings. When the .curtain went up", Mr., Lang, of the Wellington Boxing .Association, introduced the eschampion, who . was cordially welcomed, after, which he returned thanks in'a brief speech. , The first part of the programme consisted of a number'of interesting biograph viewß, including several which had not previously, been seen here. Attired in a showy' cost 1 ! no, Burns then performed oil the punching ball. His display waß hardly so varied as had been expected, but he imparted considerable vigour into his work attunes. A feature of this-item was the. sucoess. with which he occasionally interspersed extra heavy blows among windmill movements. Burns was next seen in action' with the skipping' rope. He Tised a- number 'of clever. steps ' very effectively, but . owin'g doubtloss to the long, tiresome iouriiey from Auckland that day, and'.on' the previous evening, he hardly did Mmself jusiios. ,Tli9 second half of the programme opened with several ■ pictures, which possessed more than ordinary interest. Burns then proceeded to give onlookers, an idea of shadow,-sparring. Consequent on'his lack of hard training, he must have'found'this form' of exercise too; exacting,, for the display lasted : on!y for a minute or so. It' sufficed, howevor,' to give a glimpse of the footwork for which he -is noted. Burns' then engaged in a brief spar with Pat. O'Keefe, raiddle-weight.chainpiOn of England. , The ex-champion used his loft nicely at times, but his most effective .blows were hooks the-body. He showed local expopents that', if a boxer can stand pun.ishment!,l.it,paid i .,to keep.on the man. instead of drawing' out." "Les v'O'Donhell, -wa« .announced as a coming Australian, champion, then engaged; Burns for two short rounds. There was a lot'of'hitting, when ordinarily the pair, would have been called upon to break. ....More than- once l .o'Donnell .evoked applause for clean' hits';"which .landed home," but-it was evident that ho could not live with Burns if the ex-champion s cared to exert himself. : After contests of the Cla'rkLeckie order, the displays, although very instructive,, proved .'much too- taine. : When ■the company has got on its .feet, doubtless an improvement will be effected. Hero will be. another performance .this evening, and on Wednesday Burns will appear at Palmerston North.

A "TRY OUT." A'"try out", of Robinson, who claimed to be, a fir#-c!ass . overseas;boxpr, was made by. the Wellington Association last night, with a view to seeing whether ho ; was .sufficiently skillcil' to meet Clark, the English middleweight. It is understood that the visitor's chances of 1 a match are not encouraging; as he failed to extend Leckie, whom Clark, defeated.on points.' UNHOLZ OUT-POINTS WHITJiLAW. . Seeing that' Unholz, : the. South African, will meet' Tracy, of Wellington, for. the lightweight championship of New Zealand here this month, the following summary' from; the Sydney "Referee" of the recent UnholzWhitelaw contest will be of interest:—'" . Every round of the contest, wijih perhaps a' couple of exceptions, was one fierce whirl., "Dnholz aimed particularly at breaking his opponent's form up by rushing and cleverly in-flghting him. American rules (protect yourself at all times) went,from beginning to end. ' Dnholz would smother with both hands, and head lowered to almost an acute angle, rush fiercely,' the while taking White-upper-cuts on his (Unholz's) fending arms or right or lefts to the body as if, they were nothing. The Teuton's rusli was a headlong tumble, which, ; on appearances, might, have been turned against him by a skilful side-stepper, but Unholz was always aler,t ; and apparently, ready for most emergencies. Time after time, when Unholz made contact with his fists, his feet must have been at least a yard olf the enemy". Making the pace and iorcing the fightingfrom the beginning he pulled up at the end of the twentieth round almost as strong 1 and •full of ginger, as at the beginning, 1 and Whitelaw was . little or nothing , worse. The manner in which' Unholz roughed with hisadversary, , and flung 'him off or Bpun him round, and continued to do so right through, was eye-openiiig evidence of unusual power and splendid ; condition. Beyond a little sparringvindulged in here and there by, both, the little man kept boring in continuously! and when close up belted away from every imaginable angle, and in every conceivable fashion. Unholz's "loop the loop" blow was brought to action frequently, but Whitelaw had plainly been forewarned, as, he got ,out of harm's way very often, and felt the blow up the side of his head or dodged it altogether. ■ ■.