by Jack Mahon
Spidery Bill Speary, winner of four Golden Gloves titles and the outstanding member of the Philadelphia Inquirer crack squad, advanced along with Bobby Carroll, colored cauliflower manufacturer of the Trenton Times squad, as the Tournament of Champions became history before a capacity crowd of more than 5,700 at the Hippodrome last night.
Speary and Carroll, who are expected to meet in the finals at the Garden, March
7, gained the semi-final round of the 112-pound open class by beating Tony Palamara and Charlie DiGuardia, respectively. Speary had an easy time with Tony, but Carroll had to go all out to win.
Bill, who has won the Golden Gloves Inter-City, International And National A. A. flyweight titles in the past two years finished Palamara in 1:37 of the first. He stayed away from Tony for the first half minute then sailed in to catch the Italian with a short right to the side of the head. He dropped Palamara with a one-two-punch and Tony took a nine count.
Right upper cut finishes Tony
A few seconds later he backed Tony into the ropes, cut him down with a two-handed barrage of leather to the head and then knocked him flat on his back with a right uppercut. Tony took the count while gazing up at the arc-lights.
DiGuardia let Carroll rough him around considerably in the first, but midway through the round started to clip the colored away with along left-hand to hold him even. Then, in the second, Bobby started to connect with his right and took a clear lead.
The third was the same as the first, Bobby doing most of the damage in close, but taking some good lefts to the mouth and body. There were a few scattered boos when Carroll was called the winner, but he had clearly earned an edge.
