FAST WORK PLEASES WRESTLING CROWD

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 264, 4 August 1936, Page 3

FAST WORK PLEASES WRESTLING CROWD

Two Bouts at Town Hall

BLOMFIELD WINS; OTHER A DRAW Two whirlwind five-round wrestling bouts, in which four of the most formidable professionals in the Dominion participated. drew a large crowd to the Wellington Town Hall last night, and provided thrills enough to satisfy the most bloodthirsty ringside enthusiasts. I Lofty Blomfield beat Jack Forsgren in : a contest which, although lacking the : animosity of their last encounter in the Town Hall, was none the less an unusually savage affair. Blomfield twice managed to enfold Forsgren in the toils of his octopus-clamp, but each time the C-anadiart escaped through the ropes. Blomfield iu his turn managed to break a perfectly formed death-lock by Forsgren; it is not often this dangerous hold has failed to take effect once correctly applied. The only fall was a penalty one, given against Forsgren for persistently refusing to let Blomfield back info the ring after throwing him out. Forsgren’s angry antics and ferocious showmanship drew on him the jeers of the onlookers, but the crowd was in jovial mood, and hooted wholly without malice. The Paul Boesch-Joe Woods match resulted in a draw, with one fall each. It was a combat of drop-kicks versus elbowjolts, although filled out with a good deal of excellent scientific wrestling, at the greatest speed. Although Boesch was knockjd unconscious with left and right elbow-jolts in the third round, he re-, covered sufficiently to drop-kick Woods three times for a fall in the fourth. Only hard effort, however, brought him unscathed through the final rdund, and when he left the ring he was a very groggy

man. . ’ ' . Blomfield and Forsgren Make Hay. The crowd was in facetious mood, and Blomfield and Forsgren were greeted- with a salvo of witticisms when they enteredthe ring. The New Zealand champion, weighing IGst. 101 b., had abandoned the gorgeous apparel iu which he appeared last week, and wore instead his old-time black dressing-gown. Forsgren, who also weighed in at in at 16st, 101 b., was greeted with a certain amount of goodnatured hooting.. Rough tactics opened the bout, for Blomfield held the Canadian's arms over his head with a wristlock and jolted him bard in the ribs with his forearm. Forsgren knocked him down, but, as if afraid he bad gone too far, turned and ran out of the ropes, calling on the referee to save him. When he failed to perfect a boston crab, and Blomfield sent.him flying in a somersault, he gave'way to an exhibition of rage, dancing, banging the floor with bis ‘palms, and Shaking both fists overhead. Blomfield was striving for an octopus clamp, and while the two were interlocked on the mat there was an exchange of hair and nose pulling. Every time the wrestlers found their feet an interchange of elbow jolts resulted. Forsgren sent Blomfield to the mat with his forearm, and kicked him in the ribs as he knelt on all fours. At the interval Forsgren occupied his leisure with an argument with the referee, Mr. A. Jenkins. He also grimaced and shook his fist at the spectators, who howled with delight. For screwing Blomfield’s little finger while holding him with a hammerlock, Forsgren was back-slammed twice. Although he battered Blomfield with knee jolts he could not obtain his boston crab, and instead Blomfield tied him up iu an octopus clamp, Forsgren crawled for the ropes and won free. He gesticulated impotently when rocked in a painful splits. Then, quite unexpectedly, he rose to his feet, hands raised, in the indian deathlock., Blomfield was tough, and tried to rise. Forsgren pushed him in the face—and Blomfield seized his hand

and hauled him to the mat. In the third round Blomfield took a punch below the belt, which appeared to cause him distress. The referee separated them. Blomfield, out for revenge at going down twice for knee jolts, hurled himself on the Canadian, bore him to the ropes, and, grasping his hair, battered him with' elbow jolts. Forsgren sought relief in a stranglehold, which drew reproof from the referee. After a battle of jolts, Forsgren dumped Blomfield hard. Then he tried another stranglehold. “I’ve warned you for the last time I” called the referee. Forsgren bowled Blomfield into the ropes and kicked him out of the ring. He tried to. keep him out, refusing to obey the referee, and kicking out whenever Blomfield drew near the ropes. So a penalty fail was civen against him. He followed the referee round the ring, expostulating and shaking his fists, but that stalwart man refused to listen. In the last round, which was without a fall, both men rolled through the ropes, and continuer] fighting among the spectators. Finally the referee had to take a

hand, applying a head scissors to Forsgren and elbow joUjng Blomfield. This separated them. On their return Blomfield again completed an octopus hold, and Forsgren again reached the ropes in Wild cheers acclaimed the New Zealander when the referee announced him the winner, while Forsgren was acclaimed with equally euthusiatic hoots. Fast Work by Boesch and Woods. Joe Woods (15st. 41b.) set to work to daze Paul Boesch (15st. 101 b.), with elbow-jolts, and very nearly succeeded. Only the other’s sudden and deadly dropkicks, landing both feet simultaneously on the other’s chest or jaw, saved him from a second fall in the last round, when he was clearly wrestling in a stupor. The bout was drawn. The bout began briskly, _ and soon grew torrid. Woods waded in, swinging his elbows left and right, and soon learnt to look out for the other’s dangerous feet. Both men showed astonishing speed, ano a’command of holds. i “Leave the hair alone,” ordered the.referee in the second round, when Woods •broke away from a complicated wrist and leg-lock. Boesch rode him round the ring I with a short-arm scissors, but Woods showed an unexpected perplexity for turning Boesch’s own holds against him, with jack-knife attempts. “Come on, come on I” gasped Boesch, as he wriggled clear of a toe-hold. Standing up to repeated drop-acks. Woods dazed Boesch with his forearm blows, and finally felled him. Boesch was ■up again,- but not for long. The second time he lay prone, and was staggering when he did get up. Woods ran him into a corner, and knocked him out. Boesch lay on his back for the count, and bis attendants had difficulty in reviving him. He reeled to his corner, blood streaming down his chest from a cut behind the ear. None the less, he came back at the heli, only to be met -with more jolts, and. a flying tackle that knocked the wind out of him. His drop-kicks became uncertain; he was unable to judge his distance. Woods held him in a surf-board, but Boesch managed to throw him off. Then he placed a drop-kick correctly, and down went Woods. Two more, remforced with elbow-jolts, shook Woods, ahcl the last time Boesch was able to pin mm. At first Boesch had the better of the final round, and sent Woods to the floor again. He applied a useful body-scis-sors, but was clearly still dopey, and more elbow-jolts began to tell on him. Woods threw him w’ith head-locks out a kick to the jaw rolled him into the ropes, and Boesch was able to hold him off until the last bell. Afterward Boesch left the ring with obvious difficulty, on the shoulder of his second. Amateur Preliminaries. Four bright amateur contests preceded the main attractions. Results were: Featherweight: C. Croskery (Bst. 111 b.) beat C. Woods (Sst. 121 b.) by two falls, for the Kilbirnie club’s junior championship. Welterweight: D. Sword (Petone) beat B. Liddle (Johnsonville) by one fall. Paperweight: J. Prestney (Kilbirne), beat A. Mahoney (Johnsonville) by one fall. . , , Middleweight: L. Hancock (lost. 41b.) beat M. Doyle (lOst. 71b.) by one fall, for the Kilbirnie club’s championship., „ , ~ Mr. J. H. Thompson refereed the amateur bouts. WHANGAKEI BOUT By Telegraph—Press Association. Whangarel, August 3. Anton Koolman defeated a masked grappier in the sixth round of a wrestling match held here on Saturday night.