Wrestling "Title."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

Wrestling "Title."

Englishman Beats Belgian Giant. Footballer Well Known in Auckland. — Douglas Clark's

Success.

In a match at Huddersfield billed as "the world' 3 heavy-weight wrestling championship in the all-in style," Douglas Clark, who twice visited Auckland with English Rugby League football teams, defeated Laurent Gerstmans, of Belgium, recently. A Manurewa correspondent, who has forwarded Press reports of the match, hints that George Walker's claim to the championship of the British Empire is open to question.

Under tha heading ""World Title for Clark," the "Huddersfield Examiner" of July 20 says: "To crown a long and honourable career on the mat, Clark won a fierce battle, and it was no hollow victory. It was a hard-won triumph over a. sterling, sporting Samson of a wrestler. The terms of the match being those of a struggle to the finish, one might have expected that the opening would be a cautious one, but such was not the case. In the second round the Huddersfield man was on the mat in what looked to be a safe position, but a lightning move by the Belgian saw a hammerlock securely on, and Clark submitted to the tremendous pressure exerted on his shoulder after fifteen minutes' wrestling. The third round opened with Gerstmans concentrating on the arm he had punished in the last round, and here Clark showed hie generalship. Lulled into security, the Belgian left himself vulnerable. A snap buttock, headlock, an arm scissors, a shift of position, and Clark stood level at a fall each with a body press after two minutes of the third round. It was a cleverly executed move.

"Naturally excitement rose when the men squared up for the fourth session. The battle swung to and fro, and the visitor was sorely troubled by a bar. applied to his right arm. After six minutes the end came with surprising suddenness. Clark was 011 the mat with Gerstmans applying a painful toe hold. This had to be broken if Clark was to survive, ancl his only chance was to push the bulky Belgian off with his free foot. The push must have developed tremendous power in a few inches' travel, for Gerstmans was out to a perfect solar plexus ' punch.' What had been intended as a purely defensive measure turned out to be a most potent match-winner. Its legitimacy cannot be questioned, for provision is specially made in all-in rules for the foot to be used for striking to the body as a means of escape from a toe hold. Twenty-three and a half minutes had sufficed to give Clark the right to the heavy-weight championship of the world."

Prior to the match in which Clark defeated the Belgian, the pair wrestled a draw, neither scoring a fall in an hour's wrestling.

Gerstmans weighs 19.7, and is an Antwerp botelkeeper. He is 48 years old and lias been wrestling for 25 years. As a. youth he represented his country at the Olympic Games.