WRESTLING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3144, 24 July 1917, Page 6

WRESTLING

PRIVATE WOODS V. JOE GARDINER,

Joe Gardiner, light-weight wrestling champion of New Zealand, and Private Woods, of the Twenty-ninth Specialists Company, who is billed as. ex-light-weight champion of England, wrestled for ;£25 aside and the championship of New Zealand in Feathereton Town Hall last evening.. The •. conditions were the best two out of three-falls, or if at the end' of ono hour one fall had been secured by one of the contestants that fall would constitute a victory. The American toe-hold, the strangle-hold, and the double-hammerlock were barred. Sergeant M'Leod, of . the Featuerston police, who is' a well-known New Zealand wrestler, acted as. referee. As a preliminary., to the match ]i. Hobbs, middle-weight champion of New Zealand, who is also Gardiner's trainer and second, undertook to throw a heavyweight'named'Orr within ten minutes, and secured a fall with the scissors hold in six minutes. An exhibition of jiu-jitsu was also given by Miss Le Mar and Joe Gardiner.- The big match was divided into four sessions of 15 minutes'each, and the first of -these sessions was decided'ly interesting, with much clever work, but ended without a fall being secured. ' Gardiner showed to advantage in the second .session. Woods pinned him, but the latter got., out cleverly. Clean, clever wrestling, in .which there t-ccmed nothing to /choose between the men, marked the third session. Kupid rind pretty work opened the fourth and last session, but in the sixth minute Gardiner employed the strangle-hold and ivas warned by the referee. - "Woods was very aggressive at this point, and had pinned Gardiner, who again applied the barred hold, and the men had to be separated. Woods again pinned Gardiner to' the mat. The title-holder, badly pressed, again fouled his opponent, and it fall was awa'rded Woods. Gardiner at this stage left the platform, and after some confusion his second claimed the attention of the audience, and said that if Gardiner had made a mistake in applying a hold which he should not have used lie was there-to make a sincere apology on behalf of his principal. When the wrestlers again faced each other thero was still 5 minutes •(() seconds to go', and the time was taken up with some magnificent work. Time was called with Woods pinning Gardiner to the mat. Woods then declared that he desired to win the championship by four straight falls, and challenged Gardiner to meet him at an parly, dale. Gnidiner accepted, and it was agreed to sallow nil holds, including ju-jilsu. No date has been fixed for the match, although a purse of ,£SO was agreed to.