A HUMAN KNOT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22907, 15 June 1936, Page 10

A HUMAN KNOT

AMATEUR WRESTLERS' PLIGHT

UNABLE TO RELEASE HOLD (Special to Daily Times) WELLINGTON, June 13. A policeman at Lower Hutt was summoned urgently last night to unravel a human knot. Two well-known Lower Hutt residents, both keen followers of wrestling, experimented with "Lofty " Blomfield's muchdiscussed octopus clamp Guided by diagrams and instructions, one man tried to put the hold on the other. He succeeded—and then, to his horror, he found he was unable to loosen it. For fully 10 minutes he mamriivred gingerly, to his own discomfort and the Intense suffering of the man on whom the hold was applied, it was useless; it was an octopus clamp and it remained as such. So must "Lofty" ltlomfield have felt when he was disqualified in the Wellington Town Hall on May 25 after he had so neatly applied the clamp to Paul Boesch, only to find that he could not disentangle it. ■ By. this time both men were feeling the strain acutely. What could be done? One course suggested itself —the reliable policeman, the man to help one out of any trouble. A member of the family was quickly despatched, and the policeman arrived to find two pain-stricken men mysteriously interlocked in an intricate mass of limbs. The policeman was unhurried and calm, but effective Within one minute lie had the octopus clamp untied, and (he two exhausted would-be wrestlers lay back on the Moor and panted their relief. The policeman unconcernedly returned to the police station. It was all in a day's work.

The octopus clamp is a hold employed by " Loftv " Blomfield, and it was this hold which brought about his disqualification ill his first match with Paul Boe'sch. Boesch submitted when Blomfield secured the clamp, but Blomfield did not immediately release the hold, and as a result he was disqualified. Mr C. L. Piner, secretary of .the Otago Wrestling Association, has had two experiences of Blomfield's use of this hold in matches in which he has refcreed, and lie states that when Blomfield has the hold applied correctly it is impossible for him to slip it off. The referee has to be very alert, and as soon as the submission is obtained he has to unwind Blomfield's legs.' This is certainly a very dangerous hold for amateurs to experiment with.