Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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22 who is determined to come to close quarters. Besides, if you re- treat, sooner or later you will find yourself against the ropes, where you will be entirely at the other man ' s mercy. This superiority of the straight blow over a swing was clearly shown in at least three of the fights. One has already been mentioned. Besides that one, in the first fight of the evening Woollard ii had a considerable advantage in reach over Churm, but he fell into the bad habit of swinging, and Churm, by using his feet and hitting straight when- ever the opportunity offered itself, won a well-deserved victory. Hayward, too, tried to duck and come in close with his face wide open because his hands were trying to get round outside his oppo- nent ' s guard. Lewis beat him by waiting for him and then upper- cutting with his left. The fight between Nelson i and Correia was close, Nelson los- ing because he went into the ring expecting to be slaughtered. By the time that he realised that he had a fighting chance, it was too late. We had all been expecting an interesting fight between Terceira i and Woollard i, but Woollard lost a tooth early in the first round and the fight was stopped. In the last fight of the evening Harrison and Skinner put on a very good show. Skinner was some pounds heavier and had the advantage in reach. In these circumstances he should have kept Harrison at a distance with his left. But he did not succeed and Harrison ' s experience was sufficient to let him get in close and win the bout. Again the programme was printed at the School by Mr. Welch, this year, we believe, almost entirely by his own unassisted efforts. Of necessity the names of finalists are not known until the last minute, and it is necessary for him to burn the midnight oil so as to have the programme ready in time. The results follow: — Mosquito weight: Churm beat Woollard ii. Paper weight: Pearman ii beat Todd ii. Flyweight: Cooper ii beat Cooper iv. Bantamweight: Shanks beat Fall ii. Feather- weight: Lines i beat Gurr. Lightweight: Hutt beat Critchley. Welterweight: Lewis beat Hayward. Middleweight: Correia beat Nelson i. Cruiserweight : Terceira i beat Woollard i. Heavyweight : Harrison beat Skinner. After the fights Harrison was appointed Captain of Boxing, S Swimming On Friday, September 22, 1944, the Annual Inter-House Swimming Meet was held at the Langton Pool, the use of which was provided through the kindness of Chummy Hayward. In

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21 fights, but that fear was not reaHzed; in fact, we only discovered how very solidly the structure had been made when we tried to dis- mantle it the next day. That was seme job. But it did mean that nearly double the number of seats could be sold and that everyone who came had a reasonable view. There was another innovation this year. Mr. Jack Critchley has given us a handsome cup to be presented annually to the best boxer, irrespective of age or weight. This should e an incentive to the younger boxers to learn the art thoroughly, instead of relying on brute force. This year the cup was won by Harrison, certainly a worthy winner. It has now become the regular practice to fight all the pre- liminaries on the Monday previous t o the finals. Ln both occasions the officials were: Referee, Major B. T. Johnson, F:. .O.C.; Judges, Capt. Harold Lvans and Sgt. Todd, B.V.R.C.; timekeeper, Cpl. Mulder. Our thanks are due to them for without their aid the fights could not go on. In this connection we owe a special debt of gratitude to Major Johnson. He has refereed this competition for some years now, not only skilfully, but with a great understanding of the special problems involved in juvenile boxing. Le has al- ways been ready to advise, when I have needed advice, and his criticism, when expressed, has always been constructive. I, per- sonally, and Saltus boxing, generally, have learned a great deal about boxing and the conduct of competitions from him. It was with real regret that we heard that he would not be in Bermuda for another competition. As His Excellency said, there were no bad fights this year, no fights where one looked hopefully at the referee to see if he would stop it before murder was done. The judges ' scoring papers showed some remarkably close decisions, and the losers certainly have noth- ing to be ashamed of. In the preliminaries too there had been some very close fights and game losers, notably Leach, Nelson iii, and Cooke i. Once again two lessons were plainly to be learned: first, that physical fitness is absolutely necessary; boxing is much more strenuous, even for three short rounds, than it seems to the casual spectator. Todd ii, at the end of his third round against Pearman, literally could not hold his hands up any longer. Pearman won this fight because he kept stopping Todd with a straight left, while many of Todd ' s blows were wild swings that hit Pearman on the arms or shoulders, a part of the body not included in the target area; and this is the second lesson: the only effective way to deal with an opponent who rushes at you with swinging blows is to stand up to him and hit him with your left hard in the face. But you must stand up to him. A blow delivered by a man who is retreating loses more than half its sting; it will not stop an opponent

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23 the Senior Shield Competition, Butterfield won with a total of 39 points, but not without some close competition from Darrell House, who collected all of 33 points. These two houses had the Senior meet fairly much to themselves since Saltus House, placing third, had but 10 points. In the Junior Competition, the meet was ex- tremely close. Not until the final race was completed did Butter- field House realize that it had nosed out Darrell by a score of 25 points to Darrell ' s 243 . Watlington was not far behind with 203 2 points. In the course of the meet, three records were broken. H. Lancaster set a new record for the Group C 50 Yards Freestyle covering the distance in 31.8 seconds. Also in Group C, G. Nelson lowered the time for the 50 Yards Breast-stroke from 41 seconds to 39.8. Finally, the Darrell House Junior 100 Yard Freestyle Relay team of H. Lancaster, C. Lewis, M. Cox and T. Critchley set a new record time for the event of 60 seconds flat. During this term, the boys have the opportunity to use the Princess Swimming Club ' s Pool on Mondays and Fridays. During June we hold the competition for the four Pentathlon Shields for individual swimmers. These shields were presented by the Saltus Old Boys Association in 1936. The events and standards of the competition were drawn up by Mr. Jack King, O.S., and Swimming Coach Bill Brooks. This Spring swimming plan encourages the boys to get an early start in the season so that by the time that the S.G.S. and Inter-School swimming sports are held (i.e. late Sept.) they will have had some four or five months ' practice and training. H. C. E. M. Swimming Competition GROUP A 25 Yards Freestyle. — 1 Stone, 2 Trimingham, 3 Nelson iii. Time: 19 sees. Diving. — 1 Nelson iii, 2 Jacobs and Stone. GROUP B 25 Yards Freestyle. — 1 Allington, 2 N. Cooper, 3 Gibbons. Time: 16.4 sees. Diving. — 1 Ryan, 2 Whitney and Barnes.