ELBOW-JOLT BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 14, 12 October 1937, Page 2

ELBOW-JOLT BATTLE

Woods Beats Marshall By Two Falls To One LITTLE SCIENCE SHOWN Trading willing elbow-jolts in a standup battle, Joe Woods and Floyd Marshall gave a display at the Town Hall, Wellington, last night, rather reminiscent, of prize-fighting than of orthodox scientific wrestling technique, of which there was relatively little. Woods won by two falls to one. Marshall in the third round took an absurdly easy fall from Woods with a flying body-scissors. Woods reciprocated in the fifth, when he saved himself from being dumped by striking Marshall a smart rap in the stomach, after which he dumped Marshall instead. Finally, in the sixth round, after four and a halt hectic minutes of belabouring one another with jolts, the wrestlers paused tor a second, both half-dazed; Woods let 11} a blow that sent Marshall to the mat. Where he pinned him. Marshall complained that the blow was a punch and the referee, Mr. Alf Jenkins, had to come to grips with Marshall, while attendants restrained Woods, or the bout would have been unofficially continued after the decision had been given. Woods weighed in at 15st. 81b., Marshall at 16st. 81b. Marshall early unleashed an elbow-jolt, setting an example that Woods was not slow to follow. He promptly knocked Marshall down. Bumping Marshall’s head on the mat with a sitting scissor-hold, he took the next opportunity to demonstrate his speciality, alternate right and left-handed jolts alternating with the rapidity of a pneumatic riveter. Slipping out of a bodyscissors, he picked up Marshall by the legs wheelbarrow-fashion, as though for a boston crab; but thinking better fo it, he suddenly clasped his hands and delivered an unexpected and violent rabbit punch to his opponent’s solar plexus. 'The blow drove a loud grunt of surprise and discomfort from its recipient. Plenty of Elbow-Jolts. Whacking in a fusilade of jolts, Woods grasped Marshall by the head and sent

him head-over-heels in a flying mare; he landed on his back with a thump.. He jumped up and entwined W’oods in. a body-scissors, massaging his face with knuckles and sinewy forearm. Woods found relief when he countered with a keylock. Marshall launched a jolt, but Woods dodged and the blow whizzed vainly past his head. Marshall, however, remedied the error by driving home his fist into Woods’s ribs. “You’ll go home early if you don’t look out!” the referee admonished. Woods fastened Marshall with a yolk-hold and drove him across the ring, butting him time after time in the face with the crown of his head. Marshall shook him off and replied with jolts that staggered Woods. He stood up to Marshall, however, and a torrid bout of fisticuffs followed, ending when Woods lifted his knee sharply and sent Marshall flying. “Now you can stop using knees, both of you,” the referee told them. Woods clamped on a short-arm scissors and they cart-wheeled across and across the ring, a proceeding vastly more uncomfortable for Marshall than lor Woods. The bell ended their career. Arms working like piston-rods, Woods sent home jolt after jolt. . He t° o .k shall in a headlock and pitched him uno the ropes. Marshall rebounded cannonball fashion. He caught Woods in a flvin" body-scissors, and bore him to tnn mat,"taking a fall with a press in rapid order. Time, two minutes 44 seconds m the third round. . . ~ Grasping Marshall’s wrist in a modified whip-hold, Woods caused him to perform a series of unpremeditated somersaults. He then applied an arm-stretch to Marshall, with a foot planted in tlio other’s ribs, and one in his face. Marshall countered with a powerfully barred toehold. Woods carefully manoeuvred for an opening to kick Marshall in the face, whereoh he relinquished the toehold. But Marshall lost no time iu taking revenge with elbow-jolts. He held Woods m a body-scissors, but Woods superimposed a double toehold, flattening Marshall with his elbow whenever the other sat up. Both in Difficulties. Marshall again had recourse to jolts. He drove W’oods to the ropes, where he wilted, sagged, and slid slowly , to the floor. Marshall let fly a place-kick. The referee protested. Woods, too, appeared to object; he picked himself up and knocked Marshall down repeatedly with drivin” blows to head and face. Locked to-

gether, the two hurtled over the ropes. Marshall landed on the edge of the platform, and hung balanced, clinging to I Woods, who swung upside down, entangled in the top rope. The referee had ( hard work rescuing the wrestlers, and, indeed, they would have tumbled from the platform had not the front-row spectators supported them. Woods, first to escape, delivered a parting kick as he climbed back into the riug. The referee prevented him pushing Marshall off the edge of the ring. In the fifth round, Marshall punished Woods with the flail of his forearm. He picked him up in a crotch-hold and dashed him to fhe mat with astonishing force. He dragged him to his feet by the hair and again lifted him overhead to dump him. That was when Woods mustered his energy and landed a blow in Marshalls wind. The latter doubled up, dropping Woods, who felled him again and again with crushing jolts and finally hoisted him aloft and dumped him for a fall. Time. 4min. 39sec. A pitched battle of elbow-jolts followed and went on uninterrupted for more than a minute, each taking it in turn to send the other reeling. Once Marshall lifted Woods off his t'eet with a knee blow. Woods finally, driven to the ropes, mustered his failing force and struck Marshall on the jaw. The other tottered, crashed backward, and _ Woods flopped limply on top of him, taking a fall. Both lay prone for some while. After he had been helped into his dress-ing-gown, Marshall turned to the referee. “He used his fist!” he protested. “Go back ■to your corner; the bout’s over,” said the official. Woods was eyeing Marshall with hostility and when the latter made a gesture of defiance the two showed every indication of resuming the fray. Woods was restrained by his seconds, while the referee grappled with Marshall. After a long, tense moment peace was finally established; the wrestlers loft the ring quietly, and the crowd turned its multitude of faces homeward. Amateur Preliminaries. 'Flyweight: A. Monteith (Island Bay, Tst. 101 b.) beat R. Paul (Kilbirnie, 7st. 91b.) by one fall, with headlock and body press in the second round. . . ■Welterweight: A. Young (Kilbirnie, lOst. 91b.) beat C. Teague (Kilbirnie, lOst. 51b.) on points, in a bout without falls. ~ .... . „„ , Bantamweight: J. Wilkins (Bst. 61b.) beat J. Park (Kilbirnie, Bst. 71b.) by two falls, with body-presses in the first and third rounds. , , T Catchweight: L. Nolan (9st.) beat J. Hill (Petone, 9st. 91b.) by two falls, the first with a body-press in the opening round and the 4 other with hammerlock and press in the second. Mr. J. 11. Thompson refereed. BLOMFIELD DISQUALIFIED AT GISBORNE By Telegraph—Press Association. Gisborne, October 11. With the falls even at the opening ot the seventh round of the wrestling contest between Blomfield and Marshall on Saturday night, the result, seemed a gift for the New Zealand champion when Marshall proved incapable of offering resistance. As the gong called the principals from the corners Blomfield threw away the chance, however, by hot-headedly attacking Marshall, despite the orders of the referee, and was penalised. Marshall was given the decision by two . falls to one. In the third round Marshall had secured a fall after dumping his opponent, and Blomfield evened iu the sixth round with an octopus clump.