The San Francisco call., 1899-01-25
NE|LL'S FIGHT
IS DECLARED
TO Be A DRAW
Plainly Has Better of
Mcconnell.
REFEREE RULED OTHERWISE
Short -En6er Tried to Mix Things.
Cocker Tweedie Too Much for
Tye and Won in the
Fifteenth.
REFEREE RULED OTHERWISE

The National Club managers had oc-
casion to smile last evening when they
feasted their eyes on the large gather
ing of sport lovers who witnessed the
three fistic battles in Woodward's Pa
vilion.
Frank Mcconnell and Al Neill fought
twenty rounds, and the referee, Jim
Mcdonald, called 1t a draw, notwith-
standing that Neill was entitled to the
decision. However, if Mcdonald had
given judgment In favor of Neill he
would certainly have received rally of
Kisses from the sports who had wagered
on Mcconnell, who sold a favorite at
$40 to s6.
Tim Hurst of baseball fame refereed
the fifteen-round bout between Cock
err Tweedie, who is a relative of Young
Griffo, and Charley Tye of Oakland.
Hurst proved himself to be the right
man in the right place. In other words,
he is first-class referee of fistic con-
tests, and his decision favoring Tweedie
was we'll received.
The bout between Jockey" Maynard
and Willie Cole was far from being
satisfactory. Maynard is a cunning
lad and he certainly fought under pool
box rules. He trained with the view of
becoming perfect in taking knock
out, and to the unsophisticated his act
last evening was quite clever.
Immediately following the second
preliminary contest Professor Billy Jor-
dan, the man of stentorian voice. in
troduced Frank Mcconnell and AL Neill
Mcconnell looked as if he had trained
down too fine, and judging from his
style of fight. he certainly appeared as
If he had gone stale.
Neill, on the other hand, was perfect
physically. He is much stronger man
than Mcconnell, and may eventually
work his way to the top of the pugilistic
ladder. The knowing ones, who pre-
dict winners, were very much surprised
when they saw how Neill performed be-
fore his more experienced opponent.
They were very sanguine that McCon-
nell would place Mr.. Neill in the land
of dreams inside of ten rounds, but
their surprise can be imagined when
they saw Neill take the aggressive from
the start and by good, hard punching
and clever stopping put his opponent
all but out in the sixth round. Had
Neill been more experienced in ring
generalship, he certainly would have
won the contest in the early rounds of
the game.
In the first round Mcconnell was the
aggressor. He took matters easy, as he
evidently thought it was only a ques-
tion of a few rounds when he would
drop his opponent by placing his trusty
right on the chin. During the round
| Neill proved that he was no slouch, and
| his foot work was far superior to that
| of his opponent.
| In the second round Neill let out a
| link, and he returned blow for blow,
holding his own with Nc. In the
third and fourth rounds Neill sur
| prised Mcconnell. Instead of acting
on the defensive he forced matters and
landed several times on Mcconnell s
| face, occasionally sending home a
good, stiff right under McConnell's s
| guard.
The contest waxed very warm in the
| fifth round and Neill had Mcconnell on
the retreat. In fact, Mcconnell was on
the run and the gallery gods shouted at
him to stand his ground and fight. In a
hot rally near the finish of the round
Mcconnell planted hard left on Neilrs
nose, drawing first blood.
The sixth round was the most excit-
! ing of any. Neill, evidently under ad-
vice from his attendants, went right at
his quarry and there was a hot mix-up
at close range. Both fighters tried their
utmost to score a Knockout blow, but
! Mcconnell was hitting wild while NeiIl