THE GREAT BOXING COMPETITION.
There was a great deal of unrest and unhealthy excitement during
demobilization, so to keep the troops interested and amused,
competitions were got up throughout the E.E.F. in Boxing, Football,
Cricket, and sports of all kinds.
Soon after we reached Rafa a programme of coming sporting events was
circulated from G.H.Q.
Naturally, in a fighting army like the British, the greatest interest of
all was taken in the Boxing competition, and the 38th Royal Fusiliers
entered with keenness for all events.
By the terms of the contest teams could be chosen from Brigades, or even
from Divisions, but, as we belonged to no Brigade or Division, we could
only choose our men from our own battalion, which was of course a
considerable handicap.
However, I considered that this was a grand opportunity of proving that
men picked from this Jewish Battalion, if properly trained, would be
able to hold their own against any team that might be brought against
them from other units, or brigades, or even divisions, of the British
Army.
I therefore formed a Sports Committee, collected my team of boxers,
bought them boxing gloves, punch balls, etc., and despatched them with a
trainer to El Arish, some 30 miles away, on the shores of the
Mediterranean. There they raced, chased, boxed, bathed, danced, and were
generally licked into condition by Sergeant Goldberg, the boxing
instructor to the battalion.
In order to weed out the weaker teams so that only the very best should
appear at the finals in Cairo, the contest was subdivided into four
great tournaments: one for all the troops in Egypt, another for all the
troops in Palestine, the third for all the troops in Syria, and the
fourth for the best team among the Australians and New Zealanders. At my
inspection of the 38th team, just before the tournament, I was much
impressed with our prospects of success, for the men boxed wonderfully
well.
We were all agog with excitement, and I may say with hope, when the
great day for the Palestine Championship arrived and our men stepped
inside the ropes at Kantara, surrounded by thousands of onlookers.
There was some splendid fighting, but I cannot go into the details of it
here. It is sufficient to say that we defeated all comers, won five gold
medals, and emerged as the Champions of Palestine, with the right,
therefore, of representing it in the great Cairo tournament for the
Championship of the E.E.F. Could anything be more fitting? Jewish
soldiers as champions of Palestine.
It can be imagined what jubilation there was in camp when our team
returned to Rafa, and the ringing cheers which roared out when, at one
of our concerts, I presented the gold medals to the victors, whose names
are as follows:--
Heavy-weight Private Burack.
Welter-weight Private Tankinoff.
Light-weight Private Cohen.
Feather-weight Private Franks.
Bantam-weight Private Goldfarb.
The first round of this essentially British form of sport had been
fought and won by the despised Jewish Battalion!
There yet remained the great contest at Cairo, where we would have to
meet the champions of Egypt, and of the Australian forces, and of Syria.
Real hard training was once more the order of the day at El Arish, and I
can guarantee that no fitter men than ours stepped into the ring at
Cairo on that glorious night of the 13th March, when the first rounds of
the championship were fought in the presence of thousands of spectators
from all parts.
Again the Jewish Battalion won practically every contest, defeating all
its opponents among the British Regiments. Eventually, it was left in to
fight out the final round of the Championship for the whole of the
E.E.F. with the Australians, who on their side had defeated their
opponents.
It was a memorable night (the Ides of March) when this final contest
took place. Excitement and feeling ran very high round the ring, and
there was some magnificent fighting on both sides. In the end it was
found that the Jewish Battalion had tied for victory with the
Australians.
A decision, however, was given against us, on the grounds that we had
not entered an officer of the battalion in the team. As a matter of
fact, I _had_ entered an officer of the battalion with the teams, but
the judge (who was a British General, not an Australian) said that my
team officer was only "attached" to the 38th for duty, and therefore
could not be claimed as belonging to the battalion. Of course
practically every officer in the battalion was only "attached" for duty,
but there--I suppose it really would not have been the "right thing" for
one Jewish Battalion to have defeated the whole of the Egyptian
Expeditionary Force!
In football the men were almost equally good, and we were good
runners-up for the Championship of Palestine.
In cricket also--that essentially English game--the battalion acquitted
itself most creditably under Captain Pope's tuition, defeating all
comers in the Bir Salem matches, with the exception of the Flying Corps;
while our Americans were, of course, unrivalled at base ball, at which
they were real experts. They often gave exhibitions of their skill, to
the great delight of all those who had never before seen the game
played.
Our Concert Party was also still well to the fore, and easily took first
place in Palestine--its only possible rival being that of the 39th
Battalion. I had only got to let it be known that Tchaikov--our first
violinist--would give a performance to draw a crowd big enough to pack
our concert tent four times over. In the end a covetous man succeeded
in wheedling Tchaikov away from us. Colonel Storrs, the Governor of
Jerusalem, begged him from me so persuasively that I could not refuse
him, more especially as it was to Tchaikov's advantage to settle in the
Holy City, where he took up the post of Director of the School of
Music.