GOING LIKE WINNER

NZ Truth, Issue 1200, 29 November 1928, Page 10

GOING LIKE WINNER

Then He Got One Under The Chin

TOM TEACHES REG* HOW

It was his impetuosity, which he cannot curb, that cost Reg. Trowern the fight against Tom Fairhall at Wellington on Monday evening.

REG. is the beau ideal of the Yankee go-getter. To him there is never any time better than the present. Yet, adopting these forcing tactics was painful to both his nervous system and his pocket. \ . Reg\ had not been seen m New Zealand, for some time, and many were anxious Ho see him going again. . He stripped the same boy, a little heavier than of yore, but increasing weight had not taken away any of hie sprightliness. V He danced out of his corner m the accepted Trowern fashion, and immediately started the offensive. To him there is no defence like attack. ' • A mixture of boxing and fighting found him doing nicely, and he kept on going along till he had amassed a. nice total of. points. But Reg. would not be satisfied with an even tenor, and he started to get m and make it a fight, not a boxing match. That's where he erred. Fairhall can kick with either hand, and when th c y come in' and want to trade punches with, him, Tom smiles his sweetest and thinks about the silver lining. Before Trowern realized what had happened, he was down on the mat trying to gather together his scattered wits. Just whether It was . Monday night or' not, was not clear to him, and then Avhen he got up and was put down again, he had "'tnrted to doubt whether he was getting a fair go. The third time he went down he must have thought all his'Christmases had come at once. It was a sick and sorry lad that crawled into his corner when the; gong stayed the count. ■.•!"■■ That was m the seventh, biitfwith a minute to piece the fraLYnework^. together again, Reg. hopped q-ut. iand executed his little fandango m the most approved style. He was back to his boxing again, and though still rattled he was keeping out of harm's way. In point of fact, m the ninth and tenth rounds he broke even with Tom, but the eleventh found him partaking

of another modicum of sleeping draught. He was down, up, down, up, and down again when the chimes of the gong must have made him praise Allah. This good work of Fairhall had evened up the ledger and put him m credit, and from then on it was only a question of holding Reg. and he would be acclaimed a good' boy. This -'he did, and when the unanimous vote went to Tom, some poor •judges had to hoot. Why, oh, why? . It was a : good fight, and then it wasn't. Up till the time of ; the first knock-down it had been rather tame, but the seventh and eleventh rounds saved the night. They' were the Lea and Perrin's m a very ordinary soup. Fairhall would have won by thu short route had hs been the Fairhall we used to know. '". Granted that Tom was not feeling as fit as he might, he still has to show us on this trip, that ,he is the mighty man of three years ago. His punching is not what it used to be. From a nice, short delivery, he has gone to a swinging one. fie seems to lack the vim and fire that .once was his. His judgment was bad at times, and when he had Trowern sick upstairs he would not try to take his wind away. ,It was the chin or nothing, and though he met with a fair measure of success, he would assuredly, have done better with an up and under. There is little wrong with Reg., save that he does not use his head as he should after all: the experience he has had. . It is hard to understand why he did not see, or why he was not advised, to slips them into Fail-hall's commissariat. ..,<, • • :,' ■...- The few blows, that lte did land there troubled Tom, and he showed so most openly. Both boys were tired and weary at the end, but, strange to relate, Trowern looked the better of the pair. Fairhall was very haggard over the last two sessions. ■