Twice Beat Heeney

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 305, 16 March 1928, Page 11

Twice Beat Heeney

“X liadter laugh meself when I read the paper. “I don’t take much interest in fights now, and I’d forgotten all about it, square’ll all. "When I heard the kids yelling out: ‘Every round of the big light,’ I wondered who was in it. Then I bought a paper and see that Heeney gets a decision over Delaney, and is in the running for a crack at Tunney. “I couldn’t help smilin’. But I says

GARAGE FOREMAN HAS TO SMILE Colin Bell Reminiscent UPS AND DOWNS OF PRIZE RING lUIjE fortune comes the way of Tom Hecncy (now in line for a ** bout for the world’s heavy-weight championship), the man who used to punch chunks out of him in Australia, one Colin Bell, garage foreman and philosopher, tinkers with carburettors and such-like things, and says as he tinkers: —

to meself: ‘Good boy, Tommy, old boy. I hop© you keep going.’ “But 1 hadter laugh. “I had three fights with Heeney, and beat him easy. He got easier every time I met him. TWO WINS AND A DRAW “I fought him a draw in Gisborne, New Zealand, first, and beat him twice in Mackay, Queensland. “Why, I never even got a black eye. No, sir; not even a black eye. “I must’ve been 41 when I beat him the last time. He would’ve been about 24 then. He’s either 29 or 30 now. “The thing that gets me is how he’s improved so much. Dinkum, I can’t make it out. My idea is that the fighters to-day are slipping—slipping to blazes. “Why, Sam Langford would take on all these heavies in the same ring and towel the lot of them. “I can’t see Heeney a world’s champion, blowed if I can. Mind you, I’d like to. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to pick up the paper to-morrow and read that Tommy had won it. HEENEY BIG AND GAME “But you never know. Heeney’s a big chap and as game as a pebble. I’ve never seen a gamer, and he’s tough, too. “I remember once I had both his eyes closed and his lips puffed, and I had a whole lot of sittin’ shots at him. I us’ter knock him down, but I couldnf keep him down. An’ I had a pretty fair w r allop. “He’s the right breed, too—got a bit o’ Irish in him. Funny thing, father’s only about as big as a minute. Just a little chap. * “But I don’t complain about how things have gone. I was drivin’ a bus from Enfield to the railway when I beat George Cook the last time. Now I’m on my feet, as the sayin’ is. I’m in charge of a lot of cars, and have one of the best bosses a man could ever have. "Fancy Tommy Heeney gettin’ among all the big money. Oh, well—- " But I couldn’t help smilin’ to meself when I read the paper.”