EPITOME OF SPORTING NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3583, 24 July 1912, Page 9

EPITOME OF SPORTING NEWS.

(By “Max O’Reilly.”)

Dick Arnst is gun mad. He had only twelve weeks in England to get down from 16 stone to 13.3 or so, which is his normal racing weight. (Ho was 12.12 when he rowed Webb). And yet he has found time —as we learn from private letters published—to go after tlie pigeons again. He won £4O, and had his usual luck —a bird just carried by the wind over the boundary —for £l2O.

Dick lias a hard row to hoe, alone in a strange country, and with no censor like Harry Floyd—tlie oiny man who could control the champion —to make him do his work, on strange water and over more than a mile longer course; and lie will need every Oil of form he can get on to beat Barry next Monday (July 29). It is to he hoped he puts’the “tupara” away till after he lias done with Barry-

Dick is perfectly satisfied with his own condition, and says he finds the climate very similar to that of his native province of New Zealand. He had experienced no difficulty in getting off weight, and was rowing entirely to his own satisfaction. The English critics are pleased with his work, but that goes for nothing. They don’t know what his form is, and have no line to go upon. * -x- *

The fight at Los Vegas, New Mexico, lietween Jack Johnson and Jim Flynn (the “Puebla Fireman”), lasted only into the ninth round, when the police took a hand, and did what the referee should have done earlier in the fight, ■viz., disqualified Flynn, as he persisted in blitting the negro whenever he got a chance. * * * From the first tap of the gong until the police captain climbed up on the platform and ordered a cessation of hostilities. Flynn never had a look in. He tried gamely enough, and rushed the black giant with all the force at his command, but lie could not break down his marvellous defence, and the Sultan of Stoush not only blocked him. but held him, futile and ridiculous, till Flynn was crazy, and failing to land bis fiercest punches, used his head like a soured and lonely ram.

It was absolutely a worse fiasco than even expected, and the public, while glad when it was over, as an unedifying spectacle, made a bitter demonstration against Flynn on account of his foul tactics. The foolish fireman

now pretends that lie- wants a return match. Sore, cut, and bruised, he still has the gall to say that Johnson was weakening when the stop was put on tlie slaughter, and that he felt confident he would win within IS rounds. Ain’t it awful! * * * Since -His Royal Highness the King of Darktown belted the stuffing out of Jim Flynn, Tommy Burns has again bobbed up and, hurled a challenge at tin large-sized coon. Tommy must be getting financially stiff to endeavor to get into a ring to take delivery of another hiding, for there is nothing more certain in the world, unless there was a “ready” arranged, and tlie idea of Johnson agreeing to go down to Burns is too remote altogether. * * * Jack Johnson signed a contract with Hugh D. Mclntosh .for two fights in Sydney for £IO,OOO. After his fight with Flynn Johnson said he’d never accept another challenge or fight another man after November 1. Apparently the big coon takes a childish delight in signing contracts that ho never intends to keep to. * * *

The news that the N.S.AV- Totalisatcr Commission has ceased taking evidence is distinctly disquieting; and it is to bo hoped that the Commission will consider seriously before it spoils a good thing. It has raged all over Alaoriland, Tasmania, S.A., AHctoria and Queensland —and had a pleasant time in every -State, and accumulated tons of information. Still, it might as well do the tiling properly, charter a special yacht, and look at France and Britain before closing down. The Tote runs in France, and doesn’t in Britain, and there ought to be- vainable information available there —just as valuable as the claptrap collected all round the Australians. The establishment of tho Tote is a matter of principle, and will be decided as such, and the mass of opinion that has been obtained from the mixed crowd of whisperers, owners, trainers, thieves, bookmakers, salt of the earth and scum of the stables is worth just the price that the material it is written on will bring as waste-paper. The people who wish to sec the Tote mnoduced view Pa Levien with dark suspicion, and have as much faith in the value of the Commission as they have in Pa Levien himself. —“Sydney Bulletin.” * * * So much for Bombardier AY ells. The tall Englishman who —after utter defeat by a big squib like Gunner Moir —had the gall t-o challenge Jack .Johnson for the world’s championship, and claimed that ho was a new and different man, and had been in the States some time getting acclimatised. He was finally matched with AI. Palzer, the big ’bus driver and wrestler “white hope,” and they engaged in a ten-rounds bout at Aladison Square Gardens Club early this month. AYells never had a look in, and was cuted in the third round.

Billy Papke stopped Marcel Moreau, the French middleweight, at Paris the other Sunday in the 15th of a unround fight “for the middleweight championship of tbe world.” Oh, my ! * * *

Scotland for ever! They won the great All Nations tug-of-war of 1000 sovs in Sydney the other night in right royal fashion. All nations were represented. Some excitement appears to have ensued when the jabbering Chinese, met the turbaned men from Chutney land- One of the inarms “ran amook” and shrieked like a scalded fiend and pulled like blue blazes. Tlie Chinkies rolled their almond eves, while the lithe Indians writhed * like snakes, and encouraged each other with fanatical yells, inn the sons of tlie pigtail proved too strenuous, and in 2min 2-isec had the turbaned mob done to a turn amidst a wild, jubilant jabber from their cobbers in the audience.

The swarthy, thick-set Maoris put up a great battle with the liard-faced, hairy-armed wharfies. The pull lasted for 20 minutes. The wharf laborers won by a very narrow margin, and two of them collapsed at the termination, so fierce had been the contest.

The tote in N.S.AV. appears to be as far off installation as ever. Appears as if there lias been a terrific amount of wire-pulling about the business. There cannot be tbe least doubt in tlie world that the public is clamoring for it, and why there is such a determined stand to deny the popular wish of the people is somewhat mysterious, not to say sinister. •’ * * *

Frank AVbotton’s skill as a horseman in all probability won the Grand Prix tie Paris for M. Acliille Fould. '1 he Sydney lad’s mount, Houli, must have been an outsider, seeing the long price he started afc. As AVootton liad won on Houli previously this year (Le Prix do Rocliette at the Paris Spring Meeting), he is pretty, sure to have had. a shrewd anticipation of success in tke big event, and a bit of a wad on the outcome. * * * M. Fould comes of a race of sportsmen, and would almost certainly have barked bis colt. And anyway, the prize alone was £14,000. * x- *- Some of the newspapers in Sydney came out with a wildly sensational yarn about bruiser Langford being arrested at the instigation of Mr M-akin-splosh, of Stadium fame, as be was attempting to leave tbe country without fulfilling bis contract- Langford is on the warpath, alleging that he did not suffer arrest. He says he made no attempt to leave tbe country, as it was the sort of country he would bo reluctant to leave while it bombarded him with cheques as it lias done since he arrived.