HONOURS DIVIDED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27082, 17 May 1949, Page 6

HONOURS DIVIDED

PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING MANAGOFF AND BLOMFIELD DRAW Lofty Blomfield (17.3) strode into the Town Hall last night for his first Dunedin appearance this season in what was his second meeting with the elongated American wrestler, Pete Managoff (17.2), his first match with the leg-hold expert at Auckland last week having ended in a draw. The hall was well filled. An exciting and wholly satisfying match again ended with honours divided, each man securing a fall, Blomfield's equaliser coming in the seventn round. Neither could obtain an advantage in the last round, and a draw was the only decision possible. Since last wrestling in Dunedin, Blomfield has toured with considerable success in the United States. Although he is still perhaps a ljttle above his best wrestling weight, he showed much more smoothness in the application of his holds than formerly. He was up against a master in the use of leg holds, a man who appeared to have a counter for every conceivable move by his opponent, even to the time when Blomfield seized him by the hair and threw him into the net, Managoff retaliating in kind. Blomfield, however, slid, in and out of his holds with greater precision than formerly, and as has always been the case in matches in which the Aucklander has oeen engaged, the bout was full of action, with lively exchanges of forearm jolts, punishing scissors holds, headlocks, and wellapplied wristlocks and armbars. The straight wrestling was of the best, but always there was that vigour and dash that appealed to the crowd, and the first three rourids were very willingly waged. Both moved well, and showed a good variety of holds, although* the greater part of the opening round was occupied with a body scissors with toehook which was applied by Managoff after Blomfield had been on the attack in tne early stages. Managoff introduced something new in the Way of a wrist strangle in the third round, and by way of good measure hauled Blomfield back to the mat by the hair when he looked like getting out of it. Some lively forearm jolting was relieved by Managoffs use of the “knee-drop,” which lifted Blomfield high in the air before Managoff again pounced on him with a full-nelson and fhen a hammerlock, Blomfield responding with a Japanese armbar.

The fourth round had been in progress only two minutes and a-nalf when, after an exchange of forearm jolts and elbow jabs, Managoff brought Blomfield down by the simple process of grabbing him by the hair. He pursued his advantage, and, after flattening his opponent with a dropkick, picked him up and dumped him to take the first fall. In the next two rounds Blomfield proved himself adept in .the use of variations of the toehold, with the stepover toehold the most effective, especially when he endeavoured to obtain leverage by reaching for the rope. Managoff countered this move with a barred toehold, using his opponent’s leg as a bar. Both men showed signs of wear after being hurled into the net by the hair, but it was not until the seventh round that Blomfield was afforded the opportunity to apply his inescapable hold. When Managoff broke a stepover toehold with a well-applied splits, Lofty rolled back and sat on his opponent. He then dropped Managoff with a flying leg-scissors, and came up holding the octopus clamp, to which Managoff submitted within 20 seconds when the round had been in progress three minutes. Hold and counter followed each other throughout a very fast last round, but there was no fall, and the referee, Mr R. Tourell, could not separate the men, the match ending in a draw Aniateur Preliminaries Wayne Tourell (Taierl), 4.8, beat John Woodford (Taieri), 4.6. by two straight falls. The first fall was secured in the second round with a body-press, and the next came in the third round with a half-nelson and body-press. N. Clarke (Taieri), 8.10, defeated J. Lowry (Olympic), 8.2, by one fall, -obtained in the second round with a further nelson and body-press. L. J. Caldwell (Hampden). 9.7, defeated E. Sizemore (Hampden), 9.7. on points after each had obtained a fall—Caldwell in the first round and Sizemore in the next—each with a leg-cradle hold. A. Bruce (Olympic), 9.9, defeated K. Sudden (Kiwi), 9.9, on points, no falls being recorded. , , . . _ S. Bucklev (Olympic), 10.12, defeated B. Mortimer (Kiwi), 10.10, by one fall, taken in the third round with a half-nelson and body-press. ~ , _ Mr Colin Turner was the referee for the preliminary contests.