BOXING.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1561, 3 October 1912, Page 3

BOXING.

I AUSTRALASIANiCHAMPIONSHIPS. "ANY OLD ItULES." EOAV XEW ZKAIiAXDEKS LOST. "Jf wo had contliictoil our Now Zo,iland cliampionsliiDS as those An«tvalsiMim rliainpinntihips wcro rnnductod in Sydney, Wellington people would linvo sour mail. I Tlipt would have said: 'This i-n't boxins; it is fiivw.' "—Such was (lie comI niPiilary made yesterday li.v Mr. W. (■. Afiick, soeretar.v of ihc New Zealand Boxins Council, and manager of Ilie New fcnlaml lc;>n\ which cDinpelwl at thojvI'ont Aii.struliisian cliainpionships at Sydney, lie returned from .Sydney yesterday with three members of hi? t'eiiin, l!oreliiim, Witliey, and Ginni, mid (lie above remark was made by him In a Dominion' reporter. The news had already reached us here that Sir. Atari; was by no means satisfied that, his men hail lioi-n bealen fairly, but the brief report failed to convey tho full measure of his disgust. Hii feelings are Uio feelings of the boxcis who suffered by tho bad control of the meetin?. "These championships are supposed to bo conducted under the Australasian championship rules," he said, "and they were not. As far as I could see any old rules were allowed. The icngth of' the rounds was wronß. Instead of four threominutc rounds, they fought three of two minutes and one. of three. And iuiightincr was allowed, holding and liitlin? wns allowed, and hiltini in the breakaway was allowed. The hittim; and holding would hnve amazed you. Tt was disgraceful. I have said that infighting wa« allowed; the referee would certainly call 'Break,' but some of the coinpelitors would tako no nofico of him. On the other hand when Barr, who is a .«hortritmed boy, slipped a. lead occasionally and hit a long opponent in the body, tho referee called 'Break.' Our fellows' were not used to that sort of thing, and tlicv suffered most." Mr. Atack maintained that the conduct oftne tourney was bad altogether. The officials were nil professionals, at least one of them a professional instructor. No supervision was exercised over stoves or bandages. He did not say that B lov«< were broken or faked, but they were put on in the dressing-rooms, and 'it wns apparently nobody's duty to look after this. There wns no supervision over bandages either, and a man might have bound his hand up anyway—he could have made it like n cestus if he chose. .Speaking of the judging, he said- the decisions against Gunn, Fitzsimmons, and Boreham were manifestly wrong. Boreham's opponent, Kana, was an absolute clown in the ring, and in New Zealand if ho had played such foolish tricks in the ring he would have been assuredly ordered out of it. Boreham had to chase him all round the ring, and when Boreham found him Borehnm hit him. Tho ?>'ew Zralander certainly won In four rounds, but nn extra round was ordered, and Kane, a husky fellow, who had not. been fighting, was fresh enough to win. Gunn had certainly beat M'M'illan. who nftervanls took the bantam championship. He beat Gunn in the first two rounds, bnt'tlm Timaru boy was level at the end of the third, and in the fourth he won easily. W. I". Corbett, in the "Kcferee" had said that Gunn was a winner. Fitzsiminon;, tou, had all tho host of his match with Coghill for three rounds, but in tho fourth Coghill, splendidly trained, picket! u(i Home points, but. not enough to turn the scale. _ "Tlie Sportsinnn" had stated Hint I'itzsinuuons won by a fail margin. • .Wi they had also* been victimised by a bail decision. The Sydney "Sun" published a photograph of tlie champion, Shaw, and alongside of it a photograph of AVitlicy, with a note to tho effect that Withey . would have been champion but for a bad decision. Penrose, the lightweight, was beateu fairly, and Barr hid fought well to get iiito the final. Boreham, who was present during this conversation, added his opinion of the matche.-. He said the New iiealandcs had lost in Sydney by leading and forcing the fighting, whereas in N'ew Zealand points were counted for these tictics.

It is only fair to add that the manager and Members of tin , team have notlu"? but good to fay of the hospitality extended to them out of the ring in Sydney. At the conference held in Sydney it w.-is arranged that New Zealand should have tho championships for 1013, Queensland 1911, Tasiniinia 1915, Xew South Wales JSUi. ami that this'rofatiou should bo preserved hereafter. It was further recommended that Ihe 1013 .championships in New Zealand should not be hrlrl farther south than Christehureh. It was decided that in all future tourneys the referee should 1» out of the rin», that three seconds (one official) should bu allowed to each competitor, and that lio fcos«r be required to box in two contests in the same class in ono night. THE COMING TOUKNAMENT. Arrangements for the boxing tournament at the Town Hull to-morrow ovenins are well forward, and the complete programme appears elsewhere. The principal 'contest, between Jhirphy and Truscott for the welter-weight championship, of which- the former is the holder, is likely to provide-something exceptionally attractive. Both arc in' tho top class in New Zealand and Australia respectively,' and both have tho reputation of being forceful, clever boxers, which is the stylo which appeals to supporters of tho sport. •As a professional Murphy has practically an unbroken record with -victories . -over Tracy, Gault, Olsen, and other well-known competitors, while the visitor's record includes a period of three years as lightweight chaniiiiou of Australia, duringwhich time lie met and defeated all t lies leading men anxious to annex the title. The amateur preliminaries should provide good sport. Withey has been secured for a match with Murphy, the welter champion. The Otnj;o man is on his \vay homo from tho Australasian championships, where ho was runner-up in the welter class. Thompson, the- vigorous feather-weight, will be seen in a fiveround contest with Havill, the clpver exponent from I'alnterstoti, and Ingham, of Potone, will he opposed to Olsen. a novice making his first appearance. He is a pupil of D. Murphy, who is cspectod to give.a good account, of himself. Patrons at Hntt'ancl Pctoue are asked to noto that the last train will bo delayed until 10.15 for their convenience.