NOVELTIES INTRODUCED INTO COLOURFUL BOUT

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27698, 30 June 1955, Page 14

NOVELTIES INTRODUCED INTO COLOURFUL BOUT

WRESTLING

A wrestler capable of introducing novelty into a bout is as certain of success as a showman with a live moa, and it is therefore a matter of moment in this branch of the sciences that both Lucky Simunovich and Don Beitelman, who were in close conference at the Civic Theatre last evening, were both able to contribute something more to the sum of human knowledge. That Simunovich won is of little consequence; one might as well record that Einstein made more, or rrl ess ’ mone y than the Curies. Throughout the bout there were little touches, neat and new, and with the performers’ determined efforts to make it convincing, they combined to provide one of the season’s better bouts. Not that it started with much promise. The initial crop consisted chiefly of the sort of odd noises the radio listener gets when he goes round the dial at speed, and the entertainment content was little higher. Then there were some arm rolls from Simunovich. These are new to Christchurch, or old enough to be new, and after Beitelman had been spun across the ring three times he retired to a corner to puzzle it all out. His answer was a good one. When the bell sounded to end the round he was holding Simunovich firmly to the mat The referee (Mr A. McGregor) explained to him gently, as to a child, that the round was'over, that the bell had been sounded. East Lynne provided nothing so tragic as Beitelman’s incredulous, heart-broken “No!” The timekeeper came to the ropes to show Beitelman his watch. Beitelman studied it intently, apparently in the belief that it was no more reliable than the Post Office clock. He walked away disconsolately, turned on his heel with inspiration writ large upon his face, and said: “’xnere should be two.” British justice isn’t what it used to be, and Beitelman, like others before him, was unable to turn back the hands of time. The second round, a particularly • gorous affair, also ended with Beitelman on top, and at the bell he threw the timekeeper a look like a flamethrower. For a man who at Kawerau the previous evening had had a wooden tray broken over his head by the ingenious Zorro, this was restraint indeed. Beitelman, in the course of an allout assault in the third round, flung Simunovich through the ropes by his

hair, but he was then felled by a right Simunovich clambered back into the rmg with the air of a man with plenty of time on his hands. He applied a head lock, ran across the ring with Beitelman in tow, and then sat down at the same moment releasing his grip’ The end result of this manoeuvring was that Beitelman fell flat on his face Twice more it happened, like a train shunting game with the brakes on and it required nothing more than a frackbreaker to give Simunovich a The fourth round produced some punches and more tearing of hair, some judo chops brought out of Alo Leilani’s cold storage, some boxing of dubious quality, and a hammerlock on which Simunovich worked with the desperate energy of a man jacking up a car on a cold morning. Beitelman at one stage was m such straits that he curled £S?, s ?L up ? nto a bal * and rolled about the ring. Simunovich was willing to play, but could-find nothing to s .°. went away sulkily. One good bave split* this atom, but that might have spoiled the effect So to the fifth, where Beitelman won : £!L fal J a ” unpalatable combination of Irish whips and Boston crab in the sixth round Beitelman was thrown about like an oddment at a bargain sale, and when he began to aS fj ir k bln P se <t he so far forgot himhe struck the referee. Mr McGregor s counter punch ended all that. But Beitelman. holding a Boston crab, found it scuttling away from him beneath the ropes, and his indfX C rifl°catio e n talninfi hiS grip br ° Uglit Beitelman. apparently onlj’ semiconscious. rolled his way through the ropes, over the staging and on to the floor of the theatre at the feet of a ?.a fr 2 n - t r - ow patrons. This was, inwrestling to the people. Ari ambulance man and police revived him sufficiently to allow him to walk r ? O P.’ and ‘here is M t inifli k ,i! lhoo “ -his being unable obliglt’ons 6 remalnder ° f ‘his week’s • At J? e end of another dramatic evenhave been some who reflected that a season ticket for the Civic must bring its rewards. The wrestling was sandwiched between the mysteries of the Great Benyon and tonight s concert iiy the international v J°hmst. Max Rostal. But Christchurch people do sot suffer from cu - tural indigestion.