KOSTOS AND ZORRO DRAW IN VIGOROUS DISPLAY

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28016, 10 July 1956, Page 14

KOSTOS AND ZORRO DRAW IN VIGOROUS DISPLAY

WRESTLING

Not even in the most determined productions of the Pateroa Junior Dramatic Society have heroes been so objectionably full of virtue and villains quite so seeped in sin as were the principals in last evening’s wrestling at the Civic Theatre. John Kostos and the Great Zorro drew, ope fall each, and their performance must rank as the best of this and several seasons. In the first five rounds, particularly, the rallies had the pace and persistence of Wimbledon, with sufficient smashes and objections to umpires’ calls to satisfy a sensation-hungry crowd. These two —Kostos almost gleaming with self-righteousness and Zorro plumbing new depths of depravity—teamed together better than the disparity in their sizes suggested they might. They set a terrific pace from the start and the wonder of it was that Zorro had sufficient wind to spare some for abusing the spectators. But he did.

The evening began with Zorro making an embarrassingly intent examination of Kostos while the referee was effecting the introductions. Zorro, a sort of Red Dean of wrestling—he invariably enters the ring in a crimson cloak, and His policy is equally unorthodox —did not appreciate the flying head scissors with which Kostos began, and after four or five of them he fled the ring, with the haste of a schoolboy answering the dinner bell, and clearing the top rope with the grace of the topweight at Riccarton. What is more, he was not eager to return, and he stayed out of range while the referee went through a count long enough to make the famous Tunney affair look like a game of snap. From this brisk start, the bout went its vigorous way, with Kostos working through his opponent’s limbs with the speed and efficiency of an experienced bank teller. The briskest exchanges were reserved for after the bell had ended the round Indeed, they were still at it when it sounded again, and they had to have a delicate situation sorted out by the timekeepers. One of the most diverting rules of the wrestling game, which has few, is that a man engaged in, say, throttling his opponent is requested to desist. If

he does not comply, a count start! against him, and at some stage, presumably five a penalty fall is awarded against the offender. So the practice is to throttle for four seconds, to take the hands away briefly, and return for a further period of punishment. Zorro spent much of the evening exposing this flaw in the wrestling—and the Kostos —constitution. It did not make him any more popular with the screaming spectators. The third round brought both men outside the ropes, in an engagement which suggested battleships in a heavy sea. The fourth held just as much activity and the fifth brought Zorro a fall with some knee drops applied, inevitably, after he had worked on Kostos’s neck with the hands of a skilled potter.

The sixth round was another brink one, and they retained sufficient energy for another brawl after the bell. Then Kostos came in the seventh, from the very brink of defeat, to fistten Zorro repeatedlv, and apply in aeroplane spin. The first take-off failed, but he got him airborne the second time, and that was that. The crowd sounded as if it had just heard that Vincent was to lead the AD Blacks.

The evening ended satisfactorily, with Zorro tied firmly in the ropes and Kostos dive-bombing him vigorously, using a wrestling version of the weitern roll. When the draw was announced, Zorro went into his usual performance, but there was some bad stage maagement. The lights were dimmed while he declaimed: no performance by Winston McCarthy would be improved by a power cut at the very crescendo.

AMATEUR BOUTS Amateur wrestling bouts at the Civic Theatre last evening resulted:— Feather-weight: G. Wilson (Health and Strength) beat J. de Malmanche (Toe H. Linwood) on points. Light-weight: B. Roberts (Toe H, Un* wood) beat J. Ellis (Invercargill) on points. Middle-weight: G. Hobson (Crichton Cobbers’ Club) beat J. Denneriey (Crichton Cobbers’ Club) by one fall to nil. Bantam-weight: B. Halligan (Toe H. Linwood) drew with M. Walker (Health and Strength), one fall each. Fly-weight: J. Thistoll (Health and Strength) beat B. Foord (Toe H. Linwood) by two falls.