PUGULISTS LAWSUIT

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 18

PUGULISTS LAWSUIT

Referees Claim Fails

Evidence of considerable interest to followers of boxing was given in a law case in London recently. The case was brought by Matt Wells, who was a noted professional lightweight boxer over 20 years ago, aud who has been a referee in boxing contests in Great Britain for many years. Wells gave a decision of a draw in the fight between Don McCorkindale, South African heavyweight and Walter Neusel, German heavyweight, at the Albert Hall, London, on March 13, 1933. After the fight the British Board of Boxing Control withdrew Well’s license as a referee. He sought an injunction to restrain the board from acting on its decision. The long-delayed hearing of his case was taken before Justice Avory and a special jury in the King’s Bench Division.

“In Matt Well’s opinion,” declared his counsel, “it was uot a question of who was the better boxer in this contest, but who was the worse. He came to the conclusion that they were equal, and declared the match a draw.” Well’s explanation of his verdict was that, in his opinion, the fight ought never to have taken place. One of the boxers, in his view, had influenza and the other a damaged wrist.

Giving evidence, Wells said that for four years lie was lightweight amateur champion, aud in 1911, when he was 28 and a professional, he won the lightweight championship of Great Britain. Jeff Dickson, promoter of the Albert Hall fight, asked him to referee it. 1 Wells said he averaged £6 a week for refereeing at the Ring, Blackfriars, and he also acted as referee in various parts of the country. He agreed with Sir Patrick Hastings, K.C., who appeared for the Boxing Board, that if a referee saw that a fight was degenerating into a farce he should turn the boxers out of the ring. Sir Patrick: Neither man was fighting an ounce after the first round, was he?

Wells: In my opinion they were doing their best.

“There is nothing out of the way in two boxers fighting out of form,” Wells added. "They are only human beings.” Sir Patrick: They were like a couple of school children, weren’t they—No. Sir Patrick pressed as to the opinion of the crowd, and Wells about-turned to Justice Avory and appealed: “My lord, I am in the ring refereeing a fight, and learned counsel is asking me what the crowd were saying! It is ridicul ous.”

There was laughter when Sir Patrick remarked to Wells: “You get five points for that.”

CcCorkindale, in evidence, agreed that he was not in his best form when he fought Neusel. He was suffering from a bad cold. He did his best to win. Sir Patrick: Did Neusel seem all right to you?

McCorkindale: The way he hit me he did.

McCorkindale said he got £l5O or £2OO for the fight. Opening the defence, Sir Patrick Hastings declared that “obviously it was a bogus fight—bogus in the sense that the two men were not trying. There is no protection at all for the thousands who go to see fights except the referee,” he said. “The license has been taken away on the ground of incompetence.”

F. C. Donmali, secretary of the Boxing Board, agreed in cross-examination that no charge was made against the boxers that they did not play fair. P. J. Moss, a steward of the board, a member of the Referees’ Committee, and an amateur referee, gave evidence that when Wells was before the stewards, he described it as a poor bout and added that in his opinion there was something the matter with both men.

Sir Patrick Hastings: Supposing a referee finds the men are giving a poor fight and he thinks there ■was something the matter with both men, what should he d<f?—lf he thinks there is something wrong, he should turn them out.

Wdre you satisfied •with his explanation?—No,, we thought he was lying. What in your opinion was the decision which Matt Wells should have given?—The decision should have been taht Neusel won easily. Captain E. V. Chandler, a former amateur middleweight and heavyweight champion of the British Empire and a member of the Referees Committee, said that Wells should have ordered both men out of the ring after the third round.

Counsel for Wells: Did you form an opinion whether he was incompetent or dishonest?—Dishonest. It was not that he failed in his duty because he was incompetent, but that he failed dishonestly, corruptly.—Corruptly. Captain Chandler declared that the corruption was “taking instructions from fight managers that the fight was to be a draw.”

The two men “had to be on their feet at the end of the twelfth round,” and betting men left the ringside before the fight began and were laying even money that it would be a draw. Counsel: You came to the conclusion that it was arranged with the referee? —Furthermore, one of the bookmakers said it was a crooked fight. Justice Avory found that there was no evidence to go to the jury and entered judgment for the board with costs. There was no evidence, he said, that any members of the board had acted maliciously or illegally. With regard to the alleged libel in the statement published that Matt Wells had been deprived of his license, it was a mere bald statement of the decision of the board and was not capable of defamatory meaning.