1938-11-16 — Page 24

·Page 24

SCARBOROUGH FESTIVAL

PROFIT

Scarborough Cricket Club made a profit of £990 from the Scarborough

Cricket Festival this year. This ENGLISH R. L. compares favourably with the profit INVITATION TO

of £350 last summer and £852 in. 1984, when the Australians were last here.

NEW ZEALAND ·

Wellington, October 27.

THE CHINA "MAIL, NOVEMBER 16, 1988.

The World's Wonder Rifleman

winning the South Australian “King's”. Prize with a score of

BY points, Percy as Pavey (Caulfeld, Vic.) achieved a

performance unparalleled in the history of competitive rifle shooting.

at

Born This makes his sixth win in Aus- grand championship. The New Zealand Rugby Lea-tralian "King's" competitions. In [Kyabram (Vic.) on October 7, 1902, gue has received an invitation consecutive order they are:-1930 this remarkable marksman is still Pat Boot, New Zealand's Empire from the English Rugby League Victoria and Queensland; 1981 N. youthful enough to make one won- Games half-mile champion, will possi- to send a team to, England in S. W., 1932 Victoria; 1935 Victoria; [der whether time will prove that as bly make an attempt on S. C. Wooder-1939. Financial details of the 1938 South Australia. Universally yet he has but partly opened the son's 880 yards record this season. The cinder track at Timaru will pro- tour, which were forwarded with acclaimed throughout the rifleshoot-door to the achievement of

Woo- the invitation, are considered to ing world as one of the greatest greater performances. bably be the scene of action. derson, by running-880 yards in 1m be highly satisfactory.

marksmen of all time. 49.28, reduced the record set by Elroy The invitation is being con- Pavey's record in world-wide insidered by a special committee of competitions is embellished with

'the New Zealand League.

|victories in match, aggregate, and

Robinson by two-fifths of a second. Boot's time on the grass track Sydney was 1m 51:28.

The Kowloonatic

A sort of woolly ape who spends most of his time swimming across the harbour to Hong Kong balancing an empty tankard on his head because, not being very intelligent, he doesn't know that H.B. BEER can be delivered to him in his home in any quantities.

even

THE MIGHTY ATOM A FAMOUS FIGHTER

This book ("Fighting Was My Business," by Jimmy Wilde) is far better than most of the auto- biographies by, or attributed to, famous boxers and other well- known athletes. The fluent pens of so many first-class boxers, cricketers, and jockeys must fill professional Journalists with re- llef that they have been saved from what might have been sey- ere competition!"

Jack Hare's "Gladiators of the Ring" is the only book that reads as though it were written by a professional pugilist. But how- ever unexpected the style, the story is the thing, and the story. is an excellent one.

Wilde's early struggles, his marriage before he was eighteen to a girl of sixteen, the hardships of his child. hood, and the almost incredible amount of weight he gave away in his early days as a booth boxer are all set forth, and are not so generally known as the story of the later contests which led up to his winning the flyweight cham- |pionship of the world, which he held

for seven years.

A. LEGEND To this generation Jimmy, Wilde has already become a legend. ..

The ghost with a hammer in his hand.” as some- one called him, whose amazing speed and hitting power enabled him to give a stone and more to first-class boxers, and beat them; has left a name that will not be forgotten so long as boxing lasts.

Wilde was not a scientific boxer in the sense that Driscoll, for instance, was. He had, of course, a sound knowledge of boxing, in theory as well as in practice, but it was his extraordin- ary speed that put him in the unique position he held for many years. I remember one of our best referees, a very fine judge of boxing, saying to me when Wilde was in his prime that he feared Jimmy would get a fearful hiding when his speed began to go as he had never been forced to acquire a sound defence. I recalled this some years later, when Wilde lost his cham- pionship to Pancho Villa, after taking very heavy punishment.

GENUINELY TOLD

One of the best things about the book is the way in which the story of 'many of Wilde's great contests is told, of course, from his own point of view, but genuinely from the inside. Wilde never seems to have realised that it was his uncanny speed, and not, as he supposed, some sixth sense. that enabled him to anticipate his op- ponents' movas. There is a table of Wilde's measurements when he was twenty-eight on page 105, At this time he weighed 7 st. 8 lb. and wRE only 22 in. round the walst. Although he had absolutely no superfluous flesh he was not quite so sklány, as is sup.... posed, and actually measured 10% in. round the forearm. Carpentier, a 12- st. man, had a forearm of 11 in. Wilde needed a strong forearmṛ resist the strain of the heavy punches be landed.

Wilde, like every bozer who has ever lived, does not think, the men of the prosent day are quite as good as those of the past Hunlike almost everyo one else who saw it, wàn rather, disə, appointed with the Lyneh-Montana" contest. Jack Bloomfield, an unlucky ́and much underrated boxer, is praised.

Thereŋjs: anİ SİNESİ ilin on page 12 where Blavin la referred to as having beaten Peter Jackson!... But this is a book