Bigger, Better Groans From Tag Wrestling

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31088, 17 June 1966, Page 10

Bigger, Better Groans From Tag Wrestling

(By R. T. Brittenden) Wrestling returned to Christchurch last evening with a loud report. The things that go bump in the night returned in nurnb^ f -two a side in a tag wrestling bout-and the capacity crowd ot 1400 at the Civic Theatre loved it.

It was their first experience of these gruesome twosomes, and they found it delightful.

For the Information of any world ratings statistics bureaux, Tony Kontelus, who is heavyweight champion of Greece and has a belt to prove it, paired with Steve Rickard, the heavy-weight champion of Australia and New Zealand, to overcome Ricky Wallace, of Australia, and Dick Zolnowski. of Poland, who have no titles at all, and who, indeed, finished the evening on the unhappiest of terms as the twin tenants of the orchestral pit. The introduction of tag wrestling was a pronounced success. It is not a matter of many hands making light work: there were some very difficult moments for all parties. ' But obviously, in the arabesques of wrestling, there is much more scope with 16 limbs than with eight. The broader canvas gives much more expression to the drama. SUMMON HELP Tag wrestling, in its more orderly moments, consists of one from each team competing. A wrestler can summon help, or simply have a rest, provided his partner, holding a tag rope three feet long attached to their corner, can reach him over the top rope and touch him. But it was rarely indeed that a wrestler in extremis managed to call up reinforcements: more often it was a matter of the man doing the attacking holding his opponent in an inflexible grip while his partner climbed into the ring and took over the business as a going concern.

And of course wrestlers being the hot-blooded creatures that they are, there were times when the rules were overlooked and all four were there, speeding up the action until it looked like a Keystone comedy.

There were some very rapid >, replacements among the fighting forces. But where so much ringing of the changes would, in wrestling’s murkier days, have produced something like Grandfather Peats, this time one had to admire the sustained activity of men who are recognisably young. TEAM SPIRIT There were a few occasions when the bout was no more exciting than the Budget, but they were rare; more often, the partners produced the tensions of a Hitchcock cliffhanging adventure when they tried mightily to touch hands but failed, agonisingly, by centimetres. All told, some 9291 b of prime wrestler was offered a hungry public, and solemn judgment would state that aK four men contributed to the success of the occasion. Sometimes the sight of a colleague in dire straits was too much and his partner would enter the ring: but so, then would his second opponent, and there were some brisk exchanges. Mr J. Dukes, the referee, had however an easier task than the

Speaker of the House when the members are at their most puerile. As a Greek bearing gifts, Kontelus might have known his opening handshake would be misinterpreted, and so it was. There was a bitter acrimony about proceedings from the start. One of Kontelus’s principal weapons was his large head, with which he bumped his opponents regularly. One such assault had Wallace on the mat, chin in hand, delightfully, absurdly like “The Thinker.” FORE AND AFT

By half-way through the bout, it was clear that when out of contact with one’s partner, things could be decidedly uncomfortable. Rickard, for instance, was rushed across the ring by one opponent and attacked from behind by the other when he reached the corner.

There was a moment of sheer delight in round three, when Zolnowski was apparently making a determined attempt to shorten Kontelus’s days. It was too much for Rickard, who came in without a permit, approached Zolnowski from behind, and tapped him politely on the shoulder. When Zolnowski turned to greet the univited guest, he was struck, heavily. But in the fourth, Wallace softened Rickard up and took a fall with a reverse cradle.

The fifth round was of particular note, for while Zolnowski held Rickard, Wallace mounted a corner post and stood, like one of those intrepid scientists who first tried to fly, before leaping on Rickard. POLITE REGRET Inevitably, he succeeded twice and then made a painful forced landing. He was

feeling unhappy about this a little later when Zolnowski, in mortal agony, tried to tag him. Wallace shook his head, with polite regret, and withdrew. The twin champions had a fall in the sixth (Zolnowski defeated by an aeroplane spin from Kontelus) and the seventh was better than a western hanging scene, with the ring being littered with large gentlemen with ropes tight around their throats. Kontelus deserved an Oscar for his performance after one particularly active passage. His journey to the ropes to tag Rickard looked like the end of a two-month journey across a desert. All four got into the act in the last round but Zolnowski and Wallace were persuaded to depart, and then there were two. These were the winners. Down in the pit, the losers showed a distinct lack of esprit de corps. Wallace, in fact, set up a brisk attack on his erstwhile friend and colleague. It was a disappointing attitude.