LOFTY TOOK IT!

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 190, 14 August 1939, Page 12

LOFTY TOOK IT!

WHEN NACIO SMILED. BUT BLOMFIELD CONQUERED. WRESTLING GIANTS CLASH. Nice fellow, Nacio . . . really. You can tell it by hiss smile. And this fe his recipe for enjoyinp life, 'lake one man, preferably a big one, and put him on his bacK, just like he showed you; then extend hie right arm, and lifting yourself on your two hands, drop 17% stone of weight until your knees thud numbing!}- into the flesh and bone of that arm. It's corker! Ask Nacio. He smiled, and did it again. "I'll break eec, sure as 'ell." he'said. Nice fellow, Nacio. They call him "Smiles' - for short.

But Lofty Blomfield, who supplied the man and the arm in question at the Town Hall on Saturday night, had the last smile. He had his after the mat-maul was over, for he had won again by one fall, and in fhe course of winning had proven that when punishment has to be taken Lofty can take it. Between them he and Martinez provided one of the hardest fought bouts of the season and one of the most* thrilling. ♦

Now Ignaeio Juan Jose Martinez is not by nature a bad hombro. But then, neither was Samson, and look what he did lo the Philistines! And Lofty likes tu be playful, too. So they raised their two massively athletic frames in respective cornel's and from that first gong they unleashed action. Wild bulls of the pampas might have learned something from that crash of giant bodies as jolts and hcadloeks and hammerlocks gave ■place to a toe-to-toe battering, with each in turn gaining and losing the advantage. A log-bar toehold gave Martinez his chance; he wrenched free with a wristlock and then . . up went those knees, and crash down again. "Oh . . Smile, ancestors whose names I bear," said Martinez. . . But Lofty said nothing. His

legs swung up and down came Martinez in a head scissors. Could Xacio clear. Could lie? "Wow," said Loftv. "I've been bitten!" And lie was headtossed ■ twice as a chaser. Martinez' Threat. As it was then. «o it was in second, with clashing jolt and counter; with M u Linez ligthing off a press following a head toss, and then bouncing Lofty in a body scissors. Blonificld was making plenty of use of the ropes both defensively and offensively, and the round wore away in a fury ot action. Fo the third Martinez took an armchair splits, but Hlonifield roughed his way clear and twice Martinez suffered in strangles, with a crash of jolts to follow them. In pretended grogginess Martinez staggered and slumped, but Ijofty is the Wary One. So Martinez ( anie to life with shoulder butts, jolts and threatening first. "My peedgeon, eel I get you with thees I keel you!" He didn't, K.':d as "Lofty toot an Indian deatlilock with an arm as bar there was another whispered Spanish serenade. . . . "Oh madre mio. . . Sancta Aunty mio," and they finished it off with assorted butts.

Another smile for Xacio as his knees again contacted a Lofty arm in the fourth, and he named sea cooks among Loftv's recent family tree. An armstreteh and fist work on Lofty further added to the Spaniard's pleasure, but Lofty tickled his way clear, and tossed him airilv towards the Press bench. Martinez was in trouble again in arniloek, hammerlock, short-arm scissors and w'ristlock, 'but he was smiling again as he emerged with a reverse Indian deathlock and crashed heavily back on it. "I liked that," said Xacio's smile, and he did it again. Lofty looked hurt and must have felt that way, too. He grabbed a toehold to complicate matters and the gon« solved what might have been a knotty problem for both of them. And So He Fell. Busy Mr. J. McLean had a problem in the fifth. It was working up for something, and the sixth brourrhc it. Twelve jolts in .succession connected with Lofty's jaw, but he came back with his own battery and they stood toe-to-toe in a slugging match. A heavy rablrit-puneh earned Xacio a warning, and as he emerged from that Lofty grabbed hie opportunity, Xacio's left foot, and a step-over forward toehold. It was a fall to Lofty.

It was stiill even-plugging in more ways than one in -the seventh, with bot'h men moving as fast as in the opening round. They were certainly fit, and they were each full of fire as they strove for the mastery. But it was not untril the eighth that Martinez got hie chance. Within half a minute of the gong he had grabbed a reverse barred toehold. Back he swung on it while Lofty struggled. Twice he was thrown off balance, but came back on top. Lofty was (struggling to keep his shoulders clear, and several times heard the count of "one." Desperately Martinez flung himself back on that toehold, but still Loftv struggled, and when the gong went he was still unconquered. It took something to hold out that long, and he had his tribute in the crowd's roar of approval, even though he required massage he could stand. Martinez, too, ha« Phis cheer. There axe no buttercups in his family either. Good Preliminaries. K. Kenneth replaced "Babe" Wright against M. Maich in the preliminary, and had a win on points. Both were in good torm. and they gave an exhibition that had the crowd on its toes. Mr. F. Murphy acted as referee for the amateur bouts, with Messrs. G. Heald and O. Browne as judges. B. Brewer (12.3) beat S. Gerlach (11.3) bv a pin fall in five minutes. Gerlach tought pluckily. G. Shaw (8.10) beat G. Wilson (8.10) by one fall neatly applied. Wilson had not the polish of Shaw, but fought splendidly for a novice. R. Hulme (12.0) beat T. Yatee (13.6) on points. i Mr. V. Salek was announcers """ "•