WRESTLER BADLY BEATEN BY GREYMOUTH REFEREE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28002, 23 June 1956, Page 3

WRESTLER BADLY BEATEN BY GREYMOUTH REFEREE

A HUGE and husky wrestler, a superb showman, one night, in Greymouth some years ago succumbed to the temptation, in pretended rage, of attacking the referee. But he greatly - regretted it. The referee, although a good 25 years older than the wrestler, scorned to take refuge in such privileges of disqualification and other disciplinary rights possessed by referees. He counter-attacked and so firmly and decisively that the wrestler, not the referee, was unable to continue. The referee, of course, was Mr Arthur Beban for many years president, and referee, of the extremely active West Coast Boxing Association recently paid warm and fitting tribute to his services to sport. The hold he used to subdue the turbulent' wrestler was known for years locally as the “Artichoke.” Most West Coasters will know the full story of Arthur Beban, perhaps the most colourful, certainly one of the most popular personalities in West Coast sport in the last 50 years. He typified the West Coaster of Irish descent in his love of every form of sport. Of huge physique—he was so broad that he seemed not as tall as

he really was —his feats of strength were legendary, and most of the stories told were true.

In his young days he was a champion boxer, and some West Coasters maintain that if he had cared he could

have gone on to heavy-weight championship honours overseas. For all his weight he was as light on his feet as a girl, and even 20 years after he gave up boxing he could move, as referee, faster round a ring than many boxers. But boxing was only a part of his • prowess. On the typically West Coast I game of lazystick—a kind of one-man 1 tug-of-war in which the two contestants sit opposite to each other, pressing the soles of their boots against each other and grasping a stout stick—his fame spread well beyond the West Coast. West Coasters interested in a safe bet matched him in his youth against legendary strong men all over the country, and success was a foregone conclusion for the Beban side of the match. One other trial of strength which used to be common on the West

Coast, in which two men rest their elbows together on a counter and the winner is the man who forces the other man’s arm down, might have been designed especially for the Beban forearm. Against most challengers success was a matter of seconds. Some 30 years ago or more Greymouth had a very fine athlete serving in its police force, Constable J. S. McHolm, who held several New Zealand records in such sports as throwing the.hammer and putting the shot, Regularly of a Sunday morning he and Beban used to practise, and their feats of strength in competition used to draw fascinated audiences. Mr Beban had the Irishman’s love of horseflesh and was a great follower of racing particularly at Trentham where for many years he was a constant visitor. A grand judge of horses, he made one notable mistake at the Trentham sales one year—he could have bought Phar Lap. but looked at the colt, snorted in derision, and went and paid more money for a colt in the very next stall. The colt he bought won several races on the West Coast circuit. Phar Lap did a little better than that, and Beban often ruefully confessed his misjudgment. He was

full of stories of the secret history of West Coast racing, and if they had ever been published they would have made first-class reading—especially for punters. Beban’s interest extended to every form of sport. He was more than knowledgeable on football (League football in recent years) and on such traditional West Coast events as wood chopping he was an expert, with a brilliant eye for catching out the occasional “ring-ins” of early days—i first-class axemen who so far forgot 'their ethics as to enter in handicap events in another district under another name. West Coasters, past and present, will not lightly forget him, and it is doubtful if in these days of specialisation even the West Coast will soon see his like again.