STOPPED BY POLICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 105, 31 October 1939, Page 15

STOPPED BY POLICE

WRESTLING CONTEST

NEW CLUB'S VENTURE

The New Century Sports Club had little cause to congratulate itself on the outcome of its first wrestling promotion venture at the Wellington Town Hall last night. Unimpressive wrestling between Batros Pasha and George O'Brien before an extremely small attendance was stopped by the police just before the last round was due to stop. A warning had been issued earlier, and. had the desired effect until it was forgotten in the last round. It was not so much that the proceedings were too tough as that the wrestlers seemed to regard the referee as fair game. Not for a long time has the Town" Hall displayed its space so impressively on the occasion of a wrestling programme as it did last night. The ringside seats could quite easily have accommodated all the spectators and left the back benches to the echoes. The inauspicious start made by the new organisation could be explained partly 'by the unseasonable weather, but the main reaso|i was to be found in the fact that the principals were unknown quantities with no established reputations in this country. Pasha (15st 71b), another "Terrible Turk," and O'Brien (15st). yet another "wild li-ishman," set out on their journey of eight ten-minute rounds trying their hardest to be terrible and wild, but somehow they just missed. Much of their wrestling was neither better nor worse than the usual run, and their comparatively light poundage enabled them to move faster than many, but their efforts lost weight through a tendency to allow the burlesque element to ?show through more clearly than is customary. . PASHA OBSTREPEROUS. In this respect the Turk was the worse offender - and aggravated his offences by undisguised illegalities and scuffles with the referee. The official treated him with considerable leniency despite appeals from the crowd for him to be penalised. The referee was in the thick of it at the end of the third round when he and the two wrestlers came off the ropes together* When the gong sounded the police had a word to say, namely, "We'll call it a day if they •■'.don't cut that, stuff out" Naturally, both wrestlers disclaimed responsibility, and Pasha, in particular, was unrepentant. However, the warning apparently had the desired effect, as the next few rounds were confined mainly to orthodox wrestling. . The sixth round had not been going long when O'Brien was thrown into the ropes.; and Ayhile ;his' legs were entangled his shoulders were pinned. The crowd was highly critical of the referee's decision. In the last round wildness and terribleriess were given full play while the crowd roared with laughter. The men had just returned from a threecornered brawl under the ropes when a police officer stepped in and applied the closure. :;; THE PRELIMINARIES. * In a professional preliminary bout, Peter Venter (South Africa), 14st 71b, beat Charlie Lowe (New Zealand), 14st, by the only fall in four rounds. The pair gambolled round the ring and exChanged holds on a fifty-fifty basis without the- spectators being greatly impressed. Venter took his fall in the third round with a surfboard hold. Results of the amateur preliminary bouts are:— R. Hutchinson beat Sam Bradley by a fall in the second round. D. Greig, 13st 81b, beat T. Bould, 13st 71b, on points. There Were no falls. Mr. T. Bidder was the referee.