CARPENTIER'S VICTORY OVER BECKETT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 110, 3 February 1920, Page 7

CARPENTIER'S VICTORY OVER BECKETT

FRENCHMAN'S STORY OF THE . FIGHT. Thus does Georges Carpentier, the famous French fcoxqr, tell the story of his fiirht with Joe Beckott, heavy-weight champion of England:— Mv future? I liavo agreed with Promoter Cochran to meet Jack Dempsey for £35,000 (approximately 135,000 dollars. at the present • rato of exchange), the winner of the fight to take fiO per cent.'and the loser 40. I think Dempi sev will'say this is a gonerous' proposi. tinn. I agreed, if it is possible, to',fight for the world's championship, and, win or lose. I shall have realised the ambition -of mv life. I have already had many other -offers, but until I know Dempsey's decision I will rest content with my last battle. I will meet him in June, perhaus. and then I will retire to. the farm. When I met Beckett I was excited. I have beaten him'. With the Prince of Wales and everyone looking on. I won a victory against England's champion with his huge and formidable muscles and everything in*his favour. I was happy. Then I stood back and became sad. because there was Beckett all in a heap. "Hei.nl Ma'gnifiqtiel" the people shoutad; I in a whirl. I laughed. I was amazed to .have won a triumph so quickIv. There had been no opposition, no trouble for me. I was untouched. I wrested myself free of the crowd and carried Beckett to his corner. 1 Ho was half asleep. Tho Prince of Wales was looking on. I saw, as everybody did,'that, lie could not'understand, I myself, a moment before, did not understand. ' ■ The Prince of Wales' congratulated tno in perfect French, ;1 was living,the proudest moment of my life. I was overwhelmed with joy when I knew that I had won, in the quickest and easiest possible way, what I feared was to be the jnost difficult task of my life. •> A straight left—tho most obvious punch a fighter uses—and then I followed up with tho right. That was all. What manner oil a fighter Beckett is I don't know. Who- can tell when only four blows nre delivered—and then all is over? Tliafs not so good! The suggestion that I won by lucky blows is unfair to me, for I won by obeying the first principles of boxing, which is a game of skill. . I am not clever, :but what I did is w'hat you would do in the. gymnasiumAfter I punched Beckett's nose, I saw that he was.without guard, and slow to think. Just «s a novice would do, I shot right to the point, and won. Before the fight I put Beckett on tho dissecting table, and found that ho was in almost every particular my physical superior, and wo had watched his fights and weed that, he had a strong, hut. slow, punch. Manager des Camps decided, and I nsre-ti: 0,1 1 - 10 X J' ollll win." And this I did. Students released from Army service aro Hocking to tho universities, name of them as freshman nnd otihers to resume 'the studies interrupted by t'lio war. The mnmber of medical students seeking admission isj particularly largo, and m some cases the accommodation for them j is heavily overtaxed. Tn Edinburgh 300 students 'will have to wait for admission until the spring. I Birmingham Ulectnc Supply Commit- ! toe has decided to spend £120,000 in the ' purchase of equipment for a permanent ! generating station, to. be erected at Nechells. This will iycludo 17 ,square wooden cooling towers, an elaborate set of coal handling plant, and 'a number of transformers. The committee hone it iv-iv N> nobble to have a portion of tho "e.neratinp plant running by' the winter of 1920. During t.lio war tho lifeboats of the National Lifeboat Institution, London were ianiicihcd on over IPOO occasions, saving | 5,100 lives. Of these launches, 552 wero to casualties directly due to the. war, 1 1666 lives being rescued by them.