TONTI TIED UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 96, 26 April 1938, Page 19

TONTI TIED UP.

FLYING TOE-HOLD.

"COWBOY" FRALEY ONE UP.

THE RANGE OF WRESTLING

Away out West, where they '-punch" cows for a living and throw two-sun 'shooting matches" as an appetiser before breakfast (if Ollc wOllkl believe the movies) they bred one, Pat Fraley, and when he became too tough even to hold the office of sheriff they put him into the wrestling ring. But they breed vvrastlete that way h, Greece, too (you know what happens when a Greek mecU a Greek! ) and .Joe tonti bites motor cars for a rA um° ll ( ; ame , t0 pass tbat at the low. Hall on Saturday night "The SingS Cowboy ' and -Strong-jaw" Tonti tied conclusions, ihey tried them, but rraley was the tinder. Deprived of liie bite 1 , 01 1 i VM - , ndde " for a tull > leg-roped, branded with drop-kicks, ear-marked with jolte, and finally thrown and broken wiUi the cowboy 6 favourite flying toehold 111 the iourth lound. Fraley certainly knows the range of wrestling, and there is move than the prospect that the New Zealand ring may hnd him one of the fastest and most c-olourtui matmen yet eeen here. He made a match of it with a much less-equipped lonti, and gave a good demonstration of last action to the crowd, but he was verv lucky once m the filth when he took a jolt right on the point. It looked a knock-out dtop but instead of going for a press after further sleep-indueers Tonti concentrated on toe-holds. It was a bad moment for the bronco-buster.

Who Started It, Anyhow? While Fraley was the better wrangler throughout, Tonti was no inoffensive steer and he charged Fraley with great vim in Hying tackles, and bested him mostly when it came to trials of strength iu wristlocks lonti. too, is colourful the wrestler of a dozen faces (each most expressive—from grim ferocity to the pain of frustration—take your pick), and the voice that tells everything. It wag he who led the way in the first and comparatively uneventful first round, in which the major impression was of two magnificently !^ r ,° compact, athletic bodies; lonti, 10. 8; Fraley, 16.4. The second brought Fraley from bis corner with a drop-kick that levelled Tonti and provided the most active round of the bout. Moving with speed Tonti flung himself in a tackle, was side-stepped as quickly and was spun in the ropes from hie own velocity. Quickly Fraley stepped in and four jolts shook the jaw that moved a. truck, but the Greek kicked-off and, in a hammerlock, Pat was invited by a. barracker to "Sing us a song!" He didn't do that, but with inciting slaps led Tonti into a wristlock, a heacllock, and then a parcel of jolts. A kick at Pat's jaw brought a warning, but Pat replied in the same terms, the look of childlike wonder in hie face changing for a moment to one of accusation. . . . "Oh, please. Mr. Referee, he started it." However, Fralev was alone responsible for the upper-cutting jolts that levelled Tonti a moment later, and for the pats on the Tonti abdomen that turned to three hard punches when the referee was out of sight.

Falline For Him. A perfect flying tackle at Fraley. and a drop-kick by Fraley were the outstanding items of the third, but the fourth brought action, capitalised. Tonti went in with a will, headrtossed the range rider and then came in a tackle that laid him down to sleep—but, perchance, he dreamed, for as he rose groggily, and Tonti came flying again, Fraley swung aside and shot out his legs. In the twinkling of an eye he had whipped on a step-over toe-hold (his flying toe-hold), and Tonti was beating the mat. If Fraley had rolled a cigarette with one hand while he did it, no one <vould have been surprised, so nonchalantly deft was he in applying that toe-hold; and it was a winner.

But for the one Fraley stopped on the point (it might have made the tifth a fallproducer for Tonti), a tackle or two by Tonti that Fraley was too fast for, and odd patches of illegality with knees and fists, the next two rounds were mostly mat-work, with the crowd taking practically a silent interest, and that was the case. too. in the seventh, except for a moment "of excitement when Tonti tried a tackle again and Fraley missed with his pet hold. Point and Counter-point. What they lacked, though, the eighth had in plenty, and the crowd gathered about the ring for a kill. Dumped twice, lashed with jolts. Tonti fought back, throwing Fraley from head-Jocks- and again a flying toe-hold missed. Again jolts, toe-to-toe, and again a tackle by Tonti who was hurled into the ropes, and then dumped over them. In return Fraley was head-tossed, and tackled, threw u dropkick, but was tackled again. He lifted Tonti for a dump, was butted off; dropkicked Tonti. but was butted again, and the bout ended with Tonti in a short-arm-scissors. In the professional preliminary, also refcreed with good control by Mr. Jack McLean, the local big men. K. Kenneth. 14.0, and F. Boric, 13.3, had quite a lively encounter. Kenneth was too strong for Boric to handle effectively, and he took a fall in the third with a Boston crab. In the fourth, however, repeated tosses injured Kenneth's right shoulder, and he did' not come out for the fifth. Boric being given the verdict. The Olympic rule events were under the control of Mr. Jim Brown, with Messrs. Browne and Heald as judges. They proved quite interesting, R. Freake. 10.4. beating B. Webb. 10.7, by one fall in five minutes: and P. Hill, 8.0, winning by a big margin of points from B Shaw. 8.4. Shaw struggled hard, but had not the science of Hill. i