NOISY BOXING SCENE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 38, 13 February 1913, Page 3

NOISY BOXING SCENE.

HOW SMITH COT ON HIS PERCH, AND THEN GOT OFF IT. ...(Sydney Daily Telegraph.) Dave Smith, boxer, hopped off his percii very suddenly at the Stadium on Saturday niglit, the Ist inst. It is certain, if experience is of any value in the correction of blunders, that this master of the mittens will never get on it again in the same'Cir - cumstances. The violent resentment of many thousands of spectators should fully satisfy him, if he wishes to maintain his share of popularity with the boxing public, that he must wholly dispense with antics that result in charges of being unnecessarily “flash,” and ungenerous to an opponent, being laid against him. It all happened in the seventh round of Smith’s contest with Heg. Midwood,■ of Tasmania, for the light-heavy- 1 weight championship of Australia. There was a great attendance, as both men have won fame and popularity in the ring. Their weights were announced as:—Midwood, list 101 b ; Smith list BJib.

Smith, well set up and proportionally built, never looked better, and from the outset it was apparent that Midwood, who is a quiet, game, but slow and sprawling kind of boxer, was no match for the nimble-footed, quickhitting, two-handed Smith. Midwood did fairly well at tho opening, but still he seemed to lack the vigor ho has shown before, and there was not nearly the force in his blows that was expected; while Smith, who was extremely jaunty, boxed and 1 ought, much better than he did against the Frenchman, Do Balzac. Tho contest was practically over in tho second round, Smith out-boxing and out-light-ing his plucky dpponent at every turn. It was a hopeless business for Midwood all tho time. The sixth was the beginning of tho end. A heavy fright sent tho Tasmanian to the floor, and the gong alone* saved him.

The seventh term will long he remembered in boxing circles. It produced an unprecedented scene. It was marked by clever and fierce boxing, and hard, two-handed smacking by Smith, by wonderful gameness and resolution by Midwood—-and the hopping on and off the perch by Smith. Midwood had gone down before a blow to the head, and had taken the full “nine.” He wits no sooner up than ho was bowled over again. Smith walked to his corner, leaned his arms over tho ropes, confidence written all over him. All would have been well had lie remained at that. But he perched. He pulled himself up and perched himself on the top strand of ropes, and playfully dangled his legs on the second line. it was only the

jl action of a few seconds* ; it may have [i been the result of sheer thonghtlessl! p.c.ss in the excitement of the battle. 'I and that he so lost his head as to act 'j in a way that looked like an exultant i exhibition of the knowledge of Ins superiority over a plucky opponent—an j action that in his cooler moments he ; would not dream of committing., HowI ever, the fat was m the lire. Smith's friends were thunderstruck ; 1 the experts had never seen the like | before; his opponents wore infuriat--1 ed. There was a comical side to the i ipectac.lv* of a big; husky boxer perch.ed on the ropes, dangling his loul-j sins, in between the periods of thump-i | iu S) but tie* croud was not looking at| I things in that light. V-hat a storm | 1 followed? It was swift, tni'tons, ejec-t | trical in the suddenness of its outt burst. A great section of the huge j crowd, in all parts of the building hoot | ed, jeered and shrieked at Smith for | his display of what the howlers rej garded as an irrelevant exhibition of ; Hasness. A crowd strung up by the excitement of a championship boxing match, governed by its emotions, does not stop to think—it can only act. It condemned Smith there and then. A boxing crowd, in spite of its partisanship, is quick and sudden to * stormily resent what it holds to he ungenerous treatment of an opponent,

just as it is, on tlio other hand, over ready to cordially recognise a fair and give-and-take spirit. Tims, when it sees a boxer giving himself what it considers as “airs” because he has knocked an opponent down, it becomes a wild, perhaps wholly irrational, set of critical executioners. Smith’s action did no physical harm to Midwood, it only made the latter “look small,” but it stung the feelings of the majority of the spectators beyond repair for the rest of the evening at all events. Smith hopped off his perch quick and lively, but the damage had been done. / After this ho could do nothing right, although it was manifest that Midwood had absolutely no chance with him. The Tasmanian was knocked down again and again, and as he succeeded in. struggling to his loot and resuming the battle ho was cheered with the wildest enthusiasm. Seldom indeed has there been such a demonstration in favour of a beaten man. Midwood’s pluck, and the way he took his gruel, appealed to the crowd, while Smith, despite the fact that he was clearly the better boxer, and on the score of skill deserved the unmistakable lead he had gained, was hooted and howled at. The section of the crowd who was against him would have none of him. His friends tried to improve matters for him by counter applause and cheers, but they were in a great manority, and the roar of the hotters and the howlers overwhelmed them.

The sympathisers with Midwood had some kind of mental forlorn hope that lie would turn the battle as he had done against De Balzac. Had Midwood succeeded in turning the tables, it is quite easy to imagine what a frenzied scene there would have been. As it was, nothing like it has evei been witnessed at a boxing match in Sydney. The Tasmanian was at the mercy of his opponent, but ho went on until the beginning of the tenth round, and, as he was sent down again, the towel cajne in from his corner. The majority of the crowd so deeply resented Smith’s capers.- on the ropes that no left the ring amidst another storm <>l hooting, instead of the cheery recognition that was due to him as the most skilful boxer.

The fact that Smith was the local “man, although, ho. is. not a native ot 'this ( State, and also that he, as the victor, was the object of such a vigorouslyTSUstained .hostile demonstration shows how deeply he had wounded the feelings of a great section of the onlookers by his innovation in ring deoortment. Hid wood, on the other hand, left the ring amid great, sympathetic cheering.

The flopping on and off oi Smith threatens to. provide the “nine days A-opdor’’ of The boxing season.