Griffiths's Straight Left Too Much For McAlister

NZ Truth, Issue 1205, 3 January 1929, Page 8

Griffiths's Straight Left Too Much For McAlister

It is a long tiriie since the opening days of the war, but Billy McAlister still remembers that celebrated wait-and-see policy.

McAIjIST'ER came to New Zealand as bantamweight champion, .oi Australia, with one object m life— to meet Johnnie Leckie. y '"•''■';':-. Fortunately for Billy, Leckie injured, a hand "and could not carry on. For had Johnnie been on deck, McA.ister was- iri for a; ■'-". ■ .. .:■■ ; good hiding. That ! .statement is made aftei haying seen ■■■■•..the visitor: m actior against Frank Taylor ' and ; Tommj Griffiths. Taylor he certainly beat by the short route, ; bui last 'Week at Palm - ers ton Griffiths made the champior look a row of as! cans. : . "Open as abooi to a straight left,' 6aid "N.Z. Truth' after, the Tayloi fight, and Griffiths i_ : j_ proved our "words to be correct. Tommy just fed Billy with straight lefts all night, and by the time the bout Was half over Billy was no walking advertisement for the skin one loves to touch. ■ ■ : .... ... , .. _• -■ ' y His face resembled that of a fat man who had been compelled to climb th.c stairs: to the top floor of 7 • the Woolworth Building.' Griffiths does -not hit hard, but.he is

They Want Him

TOMMY GRIFFITHS'S . win ' *• over Billy.'; McAlister impressed Sydney' Stadiums, and ..; they have cabled the Dunedin boy ah offer. "'One of Tommy's opponents will be Fidel la Ba'rb'a« : ex-fly-weight champion iof the world. It is easy to see now why . McAlioter squealed overythe J Palmerston decision. That vie- • tory meant everything to him. .But Griffiths earned the victory and the right to a Sydney , trip.

an object lesson to cricketers, he hits often. ' . i ■ He poked his left away to his heart's content, and he was always on the target. Talk about tlie quickness- of the . hand deceiving , the eye; it wasn't m it. '7 ■'■•;''-. 7 ,'Bllly wanted to win by a knock out, and furthermore he tried on a number of! occasions. to ful-

fil his desire, but .all without avail. Flat-footed' performers are cherry pie for. 7 Griffiths. His second name is pace; and Achilles would not . have paid a dividend last week. The reasons for the tactics adopted by;. McAlister are best known to himself, but to the whole audience they w ere mystifying. The continual waiting to land the punch t was madness in' the circumstances.

Yet, : when the referee gave the only decision, it was , possible to give, Billy imitated the peeved small boy, and, when Griffiths went to shake after the verdict, Billy was anything but' cordial. The next day the McAlister camp was very upset, and if rumor can be believed, the referee came m for his "share of the, maledictions offered. And all this after McAlister won thraeVrounds out of the fifteen!