Autumn’s Groans And Grunts

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31349, 20 April 1967, Page 16

Autumn’s Groans And Grunts

(By

R T. BRITTENDEN)

Autumn in Christchurch has become by tradition the season of fists and mellow frightfulness, as the professional wrestlers arrive like migratory birds for the start of a new season.

Another page in the glorious story of sport was written at the Civic Theatre last evening, when a Greek not even a little bit like Zorba, and a New Zealander whose length of hair persuaded an opponent to describe him as the oldest Beatle In the business, combined in a tag match to beat a moustached Maori weighing an enormous amount and an Australian with a great gift for winning the animosity of his audience. Steve Rickard and Clem Lakis (33st 71b) beat Powerhouse Joe Kornene and Ricky Wallace (35st 11b) when Wallace was unable to return from the aisle during the seventh round., Y’/

, The play was familiar, and therefore most interest was in the individual interpretations of the parts. Kornene was a striking newcomer. He weighs 18st 71b and, with legs like well-estab-lished kauris, he looked all of it. He contributed much to a performance which was thoroughly enjoyed by an audience of such small numbers as to suggest that these professional danger men ran a poor second to John Drake. The powerhouse piece did not quite fit Kornene. There was little that was vivid and vital about him. He has the slow dignity of the executtioner, the strength of a strangler, a face as straight as Buster Keaton’s. When clamped in a rocking chair splits, he looked rather like a low-priced plaster replica of Buddha. Wallace was very good with his light conversation, which helped preserve the continuity. Lakis contributed athleticism, and Rickard was pretty decent, until provoked. There was. action all the way, and a nice, Chaplin-like moment in tbe seconc£round

when Wallace was hurled against the ropes. Lakis, seeing him coming on the rebound, ducked, and Rickard, out of the ring and therefore, strictly speaking, out of the game, dropped the Australian as he hurdled Lakis.

Tag wrestling depends very largely on regular infractions of the rules, and in the third round Lakis waded about, beating up both his opponents at once. 1

Of course, two should not have been there at the same time. So Wallace, a little later, spilled both Rickard and Lakis over the top rope. This they did not like, so Wallace was prevailed upon to join them on the little wooden platform covering the orchestral well, and there they proceeded to give Wallace a painful reminder of the need to observe protocol. Kornene plodded over, rather like a patient foreman who can see that something is holding up production. He got his, too; but even his yelps of agony seemed measured. In the fourth round, Ko-

mene slung Lakis into a comer and there lurked Wallace, tag rope at the ready. It was the work of a moment to slip it around Lakis’s neck and organise a lynching party. Wallace and Kornene had their heads together again, within minutes—but unwillingly, their opponents, holding headlocks, charging spectacularly together in the centre of the ring. The clash recalled Agincourt. Kornene, with some diabolical types of back-breaker, had Rickard submit in the fifth and it seemed Rickard would never walk again. He won a fall in the sixth with drop kicks. So to the seventh, with Wallace being ejected from the ring, then thumped into the aisle, which was where he stayed, till the long count of 20 was done. Results of amateur bouts: J. Jenkins <s4st) drew with G Howard (SJst): D. Collins <Slst) drew with K. Hobson (Sat): J. Lightfoot (91st) drew with T Packham (Ost); G. Douglas >9isf) drew with J. Tyler <9st): r. Wilson (list 71b) beat P. Moore (test 71b) by a fall. ■'.<