"LAND OF MY FATHERS"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 101, 15 May 1937, Page 14

"LAND OF MY FATHERS"

MAX BAER HAS HEARD IT rAND WAS TROUNCED BY TOMMY FARR !A CDME-BACK DREAM SHATTERED

Fourteen thousand men and wojnen rose gnd sang "Land of My Fathers" i bc Tommy Farr, the ex-pitboy hoxing ehampion, steppe'd. down from the rtng at Harringay Arena, London, after his brilliant victory over Max Baer, ex-world'S ehampion, writes James Butler % the Londop JJerald, pf April 14. This was one ?f the amafring .scenes pf enthusiasm that greeted the . 23-year-old AiVelshman's triumph ln the greatest test of his career. Farr's boxing was a revelation. He gave Baer a good hoxing lesson and again demonstrated that he is capable of rismg to brilliant heights when the odds are against him. His magniflcent victory has oompletely prieked the Baer foubble. The IMted States boxer had planned a grand parade in this country. He counted on big money for matches with Welter Neusel in May, and the possibility of a fight with Joe Lewis in August, and then a fight to Tmgain the world title. His dreams and ambi-tions were rudely shattered hy the Welshman. Farr is in the big money/ For his fighf last night he re-

ceived about £3500. Nbw he will be worth double that sum. The Welshman has put British hoxing right back on the map. He exposed Baer's figbting and made the American look extremely ordinary. Baer showed neither great skill nor solid hitting. He weighed 15st. lilb. to Farr's 14st. 21b., yet it was the Welshman who landed harder — and more frequently— in almost every round. Baer's left eyebrow was badly split during the opening rounds. Ko Exouse. This evidentiy hampered him, but in my opinion it did not provide any exouse for the crushing points defeat which Farr inflicted. Farr won praetieally every round. He escaped injury until the final roUnd, when he ran. into a punch that gave him a black eye. Still, this little piece of damage failed to diminish Farr's aggression. He kept fighting back tenaciously to the iast puneh. It must he said for both boxers that neither attempted any unneclssary holding. As amatter of fact, it was an easy fight for the referee, Mr. C. H. Douglas, to handle. Within an hour of his victory Farr received two big offers. One came from Mr. Ellwood Rigby, a Pittsburg promoter, who cabled: "Offer Farr £5000 to fight John Henry Lewis here in July." The other was from Mr. Jimmy Johnston, matchmaker to Madison Square Garden. "Wiil you consider Farr with Schmeling early June?" he asked.

Farr's rise to fame is " romantic — from ex-miner, boots at a hotel, billiards marker, to a contender for the world's title. He has now beaten three former world champions, and on each occasion the odds were against him. In his last bout Baer was a 5-2 favourite before the fight started, but after the first round the Welshman became favourite. Farr has now qualified to meet Walter Neusel, the GerMan, at Harringay, on May 6, and if he boxes with the same judgment he exhibited" against Baer there is no reason why he should not gain another victory. 'Wall — I guess I'm not the same guy I used to be, and that's about all there is to it," said Max Baer when I saw him in the dressing room after the fight. He was certainly not the buoyant Baer of the roadhouse training camp. He appeared to be worried about tbe condition of his eye, and to a doctor Who was in the room with him Baer said, "Will you see what you can do about it, please?" "He's Tough." Then be turned to me and paid a trlbute to Farr. . Tbat boy is tbugh, all right. I'm aaying he must be the best you've had for a long time. I think he will beat Neusel." Th+ Fprr camp was jubilant. Little Joh CSiurchill, shirt-sleeved, Tonypamiy saddier, who has been in Farr's oomm rfl & Hst

three or four years, and has known Vilm since he was a pitboy, was bubbling over with joy.. "A grand boy!" was all -he could say, "A grand boy!," .Farr, grinning ruefully under an avalanche of congratulations, said little, as usual. - "i'm glad I'won," 'he admitted. 'Txh glad all my people JLiked the flght, I don't suppose anybody bet on * me— they never do. I'm beginning to hope they won't start." Mr. Syd. Hull, the promoter of the fight, said to me: "I am afraid all my pians will have to be remade immediately. I had many things in view for Baer, but his hand is going to take a long time to put right. "I am not worrying Baer to-night about What he thinks he might be able to do here. I shaU let him sleep on it, But whatever happens, what I place now." Amnng tfaose who watched the contest were Jack Petersen, wearing horn-rimmed speotacles in public for the first time; Lord Hewart, seemg his first big fight; Ben Foord, whom Farr beat for the British and Empire champiobships; Jark Dole, a championship aspirant; and Walter Neuse}. ' Well, folks, it seems Jike Tommy Farr figures that the ring floor is just one of those places where a British sbn never sits, wrote Max Baer in the Herald' next day. Tommy and I both come from the West— and that's where I ahned to send him. But I couldn't. I tried all I knew, but I guess I've got to face up to the fact that a time comes when a heavy-weight boxer has gone over* the top of the . hill. I'm not grumbling at the decision. I was strong and I am still strong. Here in the dressing-room, with a i glass of whisky and a smoke — oh, boy, a smoke afjw all these weeks!— I feel ! just as goo^as when I started. Before' I went into the ring I said I'd fight, -and now I'm saying it was a ' good fight all the way. • No • one'll [ deny me that. Here's how it went. Farr's Improvement. Tommy Farr is better than he was when I saw him fight Ben Foord. Still, I'm saying that he's not a great boxer. Fm saying that I would have licked him if I'd been in anything like the shape I was when I met Primo Carnera. Tommy's flve years younger than I am, and I simply couldn't get going against his youth and strength. In the tenth round I knew I'd got to make a knock-out if I wanted to win. Well, you know what happened, so we won't go into that. If I am to give my opinion I was holding well in the last rounds, but Td lost pretty heavy ground, and at the finish of the fight I'll agrte that I'd have given it to Tommy on points. That's all there is to it, folks. I did my daxndest, but I don't thlnk I'll fight again. As boxers go I've got long ears— I'm kind of getting old, Still, there's plenty of life in Maxie yct. And right now I want to say that I wiih a real plucky and tough young flghter all the very best of luck that he could possibly wish himself." Thanks for giving me such a hearty welcome, Britishers. In retum I'd made up my mind to give you a good flght— I hope you'll agree I've done tt. This place is certainly not like the United States 'stadiums. When I came in I saw in front of me a vast, dark >.aii it was just one spotlight turned on the entrance where we arrived, and somehow I reckoned I was seeing Britain for the first time. When you dlimb into a ring in the United States you get the idea that you'xe just like a couple of Christians in the arena, waiting for the lions to he turned loose on you. Do the crowds yell?

Selector fai South Auckland. Now senior selector for the South Auckland Sub-union is Mr. N. M. Bradanovich, who will be remembered in Dunedin as a five-eighth with the University A team. Bradanovich was brilliant in his day, and represented the South Island in 1928, playing in two games for New Zealand against N«w south mm