THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1959.
SATURDAY SPORTS SPOT
Has A Changing World Bred A New Kind Of Sportsman?
Are the sportsmen of today as tough and durable, as those
who have gone before them?
In view of many current happenings, that is a
very timely question, for, on two separate occasions recently, it has provided one of the main points of discussion among groups of sporting personalities in the United Kingdom. Opinion is sharply divided. One of the most important features of the argument is that the sporting experts are as widely at variance as are the spectators who like to take up the issue on behalf of, the personalities of yesterday or to-day as their fancy decrees.
There is little doubt that the present popularity of the tople has been stimulated by the re- cent allack made on boxing by members of the medical profes alon in Britain.
death l
his the course of particular activity then the re- sultant publicity inevllably fends la focus adélilonat atten- flon on the Incident.
By
He Won't Miss This One
It's not often that Lock has an oasy catch at short log but Evons skied this one after scoring 50 for Kant against Surray at Blackheath last wook. Surrey won the match by 10 wickets.
1. M. MACTAVISH
I am not blood-thirsly and When any doctor goes into cvetainly I can no sedist: 1 min print, with A considered firmly on the side of those who opinion is surely worthy of believe the BMA is wrong in deep examination, but when a taking up the attitude it has, but reputable professional Journal I am wholly in extreement with such as the LANCET pub-one of its number who has re Istics an editorla! urging cenity supplemented the original doctors to light for the com- point of view with the opinion plete abqliiion of boxing as a that many of the injuries re- apart, then only a fool wouldceived in the ring are the direct CINTIAN the Issue without result of inefficient refereeing. enveldering the justification- or at least the basis for the
Boxing today is a great puhtis Justification of such a direct spectacle and for too often the, love the game I would ilke
exhortation.
rutes-which Brc after fashioned for the protection of
Strongest Argument the participants are predicated
Strangely
enough, strongest popular
the Grgument
which has been used against the
the
to the policy of 'giving the crowd is money's worth.
Dangerous Element
of more
then
the referees I met both in Bri- tain and in America. They knew the practical side of the game inside out and woe belide the fighter who got caught trying to put something over on them. I should know. I tried... and I got caught."
But the question of toughness between the paid and unpaid ; fatalities out
is not connected with the boxing gladiators of the ring.
42,000 contests,
controversy alone. It has been The Board also reveals thatzin asked as In general query and 1055 seven houorary medical this reply by a member of the officers were asked to supply | Brilish Olympic Committee is particulars of serious eye in worth considering: juries. The total number aver 14 years was only six!!!
1 have been studying the ollicial reply which the Briish Boxing Board of Control has made ka the attack in the editorial of the Lancet and for the benent of those who, like lo quote froin
BBBC Reply
the
The reply, made by Colonel J. W. Grahaní, Chairman of the
of Medical Committee BBBC, appropriately pulls mo this contains punches and
to
Refereeing outside the rules- an I once heard it called ofllet-point-scoring journalistic Jab
the Lancet's chini
LANCET's point of view s based on a sort of law of indi- vidual rights rather than on medical grounds or physiological ally-is the most dangerous etes Itsearch. It is simply
that ment in boxing. It is true noci- boxers are not couseripted into deals may still happen even when the game; they are volunteers rules and, if the implication of the British Medical Asssociation's compaign is to protect a man from himself by making it illegal him to get injured in the boxing ring, ther principle involved would have to be carried far beyond the perimeter of the boxing sphere. In fact, If pursued to its Jogical conclusion, it could mean the end of all sport as we know 1 for and the evidence of this is to be found in the world of insurance-there ATU other sports in which the assessment of personal risk is shown to be as great us in boxing,
are being scrupulously obeyed but the hazard to the boxers is increased to an alarm-i ing degree whenever there is the slightest relaxation in control.
Death or injury, however it
is raused, is alway a moment for regret. When the deceased
or injured person happens to
be a sporlaman who met his
'Pon My Sole I've Beaten The Lot
1
Puro Surmisc
Colonel Graham, who is of course well qualified To know what he is talking about, says that it is pure surmise that brain damage occurs a result of knock-out blows and punches ja
the head.
But i was more reasonable to suggest that nature had provided a reserve of nerve cells to pro- vide for damage to the brain.
"The recognised hazards of boxing have been very con- siderably reduced...unül such time as some of the alleged evila can be shown to be hap *pening now, the medical pro- fession will only held lioeit up 10 ridicule by exaggerated he concluded:
accounts of them."
There are those who would wish to separate the amateur and professional codes for the The Lancet declared in its purpose of discussing this editorial that 64 deaths in four whole problem but it is held į years was prohibitive price In many important circles --
to pay for the sport and think rightly that the baste problem is the same and certainly the present cam paign makes no differentiation
The BBBC refutes this allega- tion and counters with the In formation that since 1840 there had been four, and only four
FAMOUS SPORTS STARS
-I HAVE MET
By ARCHIE QUICK
3
their predecessors but, as the 100 only record books show
havo surpassed clearly, they them In achievements to a has never falled degree which
surprise those who have watched the metamorphosla Wrought during these Afy eventful years,
to
Very
"Today we live in a material world of expertism
and specialisation. That is as frus of sport as, it is of every other facet of Hic in 1959.
Misused. Word
"In trying to Answer question of this kind one must first of ali decído what
"The past will always have K is meant by, 'yesterday*.'
do Hs greats and right well the comparison is being made they deserve their place in our over a gulf of say 50 years | record books but-and remem- then I believe that one has to ber I am an old man-I don't realise that even in that believe that very many of them
short pan could comparatively
of time the world, and life in
have changed 翅 tremendous degreo. Such change must have e21 its influence of sport and sports.
men.
"For example national boun- bave undergone great changes and new spirits of international rivalry have been
The Colonel went on to explicndaries som.c boxing safeguards ana gave examples of how they were 'upplied, Then, selung in created.
two-sten allack, for his final
Metamorphosis
gay
worthwhile provide a contest astainot
our present slars. In fact it is my opinion that if somehow we could singe a match between the old and the new stars of sport the past would suffer a most humillating lofent
and I believe, too, that in another Ally years the same state of affairs would still prevail.
Finally let me say one word about this thing so loosely called 'toughness. If ever there was a Often are misud word that is it. "In the face of what has
"There has also been been done, and can still be distribution of material wealth. toughnns has merely been
std done. It seems absurd to ask Social standards have fluctuated courageous substitute for medical mon to support and the
devil-may-care and knowledge and, if you want campaign for the abolition of
who was onco the my considered opinion, I much amateur,
qualities and * sport which, when properly backbone of amateur sport, has prefer the new controlled, cnmurages physical almost-because of economic melheds of the modern sports- finess, mental alerincus, self-
his In his man....whatever
activity Becessity-disappeared. confidenco and self-control,
place has arisen a race of "spon- may be, and I don't really este courage and chivalry to the sored" and mattonnily conched whether he is an amateur or a good of the ladividual and performers who have not only professional," the nation as a whole,"
shown themselves the equal of Do you agree?
It is a far-reaching argument and it brings us back to my opening question "Are sports- men ns tough as they used to be?"
One veteran British boxer has no doubts about the answer. "Of course they are," he says, "the that biggest trouble today Is
Strange Favourite
-BY DEREK JOHN
the public has become equam- How fantastic that Floyd Patterson, former, world heavy- weight champion, should have been made a 75 favourite in the United States for his return fight with Sweden's Ingemar Johansson next September. can only conclude the Yankee bookies are so patriotic
that they can see nothing but stars and stripes. history book of the Noble Art will tell them that no boxer since the bareknuckle days of John L. Sullivan has succeeded in regaining the world heavyweight
Eight Sussex cricket captains were at Arundelish.'
Castle when the Duke of Norfolk fielded a side Don't Know Enough to play Sussex in a charity match on the mostĮ
"Whenever they see a bit of || delightful enclosure in England. They were blood they either start shouting A. E. R. and A. H. H. Gilligan, S. C, Griffith, for the referee to stop it, al-
though occasionally-It pra-Any H. T. Barlett, H. Doggart, the Rev. D. S. voked--they do right to the Sheppard, R. H. Marlar and Jimmy Langridge, other extreme and bellow for the sole professional representative.
more.
"The present mop of re- By far the most interesting | would get the job. Which, offerees doesn't help things. They pair were Grifith and Bartlett course, Robins bas-and that don't know nearly enough about for their careers have run should be much to MCC's beneat the tricks of the trade ofthough parallel. The coincidences are on this awkward trip.
they may be full of book- staggering. They were both
knowledge. I often wish some of the boxers today could have
two with a few a fight or
born in Surrey in 1914 and first The day of cricket at Arundel came together at Dulwich School. was the warmest in England for On they went to Cambridge three years, and the burden of University, and got "Blues" în | Hughle Bartlett's complaint was the same year. They, both that he had taken three and a deserted the county of their bleth | half hours to get from Croydon for Sussex, and during the War in a continuous crawl-to-the- cach became a Lieutenant-colonel, coast troffle Jam! Both he and and a parachutiri and they both |Grimth, however, played remark- skippered Sussex.
Inseparablo
They are still inseparable, but
ably well for men who have given up the aelive side of the game for so long.
But even at this advanced
their ways have purted. Bartlettage they still have one thing
TUE
WEEKEND
crown.
Plenty have tried Jim Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, James jeffries, Jack Dempsey, Max Schmeling, Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles and jersey Joe Walcott. All of them
If
of
*Page 17
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failed. Brooklyn's 24-year-old ox-champ wins that return fight
he will out-date the oldest axiom in heavyweight Urders of 50 or more placed before August 31, 1959 will be boxing "They never come back".
delivered early in December.
GAMBOLS
Everything
THIS
together, of
Srv GARDEN
Is "something in the City," while commu-they play a lot of wicketkeeper Griffith is the squash rackets.....
courvel
axalled assistant secretary of the MCG at Lord's, following his secretaryship of Sussex for a wille. Hughle Bartlett did hit n splendid 175 hot out for the Gentlemon versus the Players la 1938, but his greatest fent was
Answers To
to hit the fastest ever hundred Sports Quiz
gainst an Australian touring
side: His. three Rgures in 33
I minutes, wes not at all to the
liking of the green-copped visitors at Hove..
If that was Bartlett's Gnest dislination, a unique feal is posscmed by Griffih,・ No the only oriskoter over:lo kit A century in a Tent Match debut Tists he did in 1947 at the Port of Spain when bo got 140 against the formidable. "West Tridles: "Billy" #igo: play- - éd «twloo' 'against the Bouth
Africans in 1048.
Barefooted Bruce Tulloh, former Hongkong athlete and now Britain's new middlo- distance stary scen, here, win-l÷m
drimux told moral
ning the three-mile event of Arundel that, i siihòugh it was the British A Champion" widely sumoured that he would ships at White City last week. bo monster-ofpot winter's West Indian tote, he would be Bruce's time war 13 min ton tuer at Feds jest and d 312 secs
hinted ttiat "R.WAV. Robina
1. Nope.
2. Gary
'Africa.
Player of South
3. Mária Esther Bucao of
winner Brazil,
oľ thro Wimbledon's" Indion"-aingles ... Lue.
4. Rod Laver (Australia) beat
Barry Mackay" (U.S.A.) în}. ́an_87-gamo semi-fina}|-| 5. All havo“-opened
England batting, during the
· past year.
tho
9. The British - Llem in New
7. Withunan Cup
B, Siegfried Valentin."
9. (a) Speedway, (b) Lawn
#vani", - (2) Bowing y 10. British Empire Gates,
NI MUSTACT WIZARZ -
THIS NEW DRESS
TO MARDEN IN
NO GEORGE
HAMBLOCKS
I DON'T WANT THE NEIGHBOURS TO FEDAMI IN THESE OLD CLOTHES
By Barry Appleby
TIUS SKIRTS TOO TIGHT 60 I CANT HELP WITH THE GARDEN, DEAR
HAVEN
ANY
AIR-INDIA
Ecerancional
"But when in &APAN, do as the
Japaness da
COOK BETTER MEALS
WITH GAS