Boxing.

Southland Times, Issue 18859, 26 June 1920, Page 9

Boxing.

The Annual amateur championship tournament controlled by the Otago Boxing Association will open in his Majesty’s Theatre Dunedin on Monday night and continue over Tuesday 7 evening. • The recent S.B.A. tournament has brought about a boom in the sport, with the result that 25 new pupils attended at the quarters of a well-known local instructor on the first class night after the championships were disposed of. Jack Dempsey 7 , world’s champion heavyweight boxer, states that he will accept a challenge from Carpentier for any time and place after October 10. At Ban Francisco last week Dempsey was fouua not guilty of a charge of having evaded the United States conscription law. At a tournament to be held in Christchurch during Grand National Week Carnival in August local men are to be given preference and six-round bouts will be decided. The Canterbury amateur championships will probably be decided on July 8 and 10, entries closing on July 3. The receipts for the Southland Boxing Association’s recent championship meeting constituuted a record, aggregating round about £250, with a profit on the fixture of over £145. The New Zealand amateur championship tournament will take place at Hastings during the incoming week, when a conference of delegates representing the associations of Maoriland will also be held. Am#ng other proposals to be considered is a remit suggesting annual North and South Island championship gatherings, the winners to compete at a following fixture for the New Zealand amateur championships. This proposal is being favourably received by affiliated associations and will very likely be adopted. In the course of a conversation with Captain T. M. Wilkes, M.C., who paid a brief visit to Invercargill during the current week, that enthusiastic lover of boxing and Rugby football mentioned that he played in a football game in France in which the champion boxer, Georges Carpentier, took part as a wing-three-quarter. It was the last match in which Carpentier could play with amateurs under military permit and, despite the fact that the French side proved victorious, the boxer was noticeably downcast at the idea of having to class as a professional on the morrow with no prospect of ever again taking part in the amateur Rugby pastime. Captain Wilkes states that Carpentier, a real enthusiast where Rugby is concerned, is possessed of more than average speed and would soon develop into a rearguard player of the first, water if it were possibe to command his weight, strength and initiative in high-grade football. In the contest referred to Carpentier was only beaten in a race for the ball over the New Zealand gaol line by an experienced Maorilander knowing how to dive for the leather at a critical juncture. The boxer was unable to understand how the feat was accomplished and at the conclusion of the match he and several of his comrades asked for a demonstration of the movement. It is needless to say that the request was cheerfully complied with and in a subsequent tryout several Frenchmen proved satisfactory pupils in acquiring a knowledge well known to the most youthful performers of the Dominion. SOW