WRESTLING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18756, 12 July 1935, Page 14

WRESTLING

TO-MORROW’S TOURNEY , GOOD PRO. PROSPECTS AMATEURS PROMISE WELL .Officials of the Gisborne Wrestling Association are well satisfied with the prospects of success with the tournament to bo staged to-morrow evening at the Opera House, when the principal attraction will be the meeting of ‘•'Lofty” Blomfield, of Auckland, and AI Pereira, of the United States and formerly of Portugal. The list of amateur bouts to lie contested, as supi ~;„s,to tho big match, is.an excellent one. and tho bouts .should prove as i.n- ---: n est ing as any of those staged a fortnight ago, at the amateur tournament Held in the same throatre. In the two professional wrestlers, Blomfield and Pereira, the association has the .services of two of the most colorful of the seasoned matmen now available in New Zealand or Australia. Pereira is big and 1 fast, and his experience in the American -ring . has developed him Very considerably since his last appearance in Gisborne. On that. occasion fie opposed George Walker in one of the series of coli- , tests Which the Canadian and New I Zealand champion undertook two years ago. Walker himself paid a high tribute to the Portuguese, stating that j he was not a man to be taken lightly Iby the best in the ring anywhere in (the World. Walker added that it | would be folly for him to try to beat I Pereira quickly, and that the only course ho coul.l pursue with good pros;poets was to wear him down with four rounds of hard wrestling, before en.dcavoring to secure a fall. Another of the more prominent matmen who liked Pereira's prospects was Harry Mamos, regarded as one of the best "judges of wrestling talent in the world. He definitely selected the Portuguese as one who should go close to .world championship class in a few years. Pereira is a solid, clean wrestler, with a wide repertoire of holds and counters, and can be depended on to .respond to any demand. In “Lofty” Blomfield, the Gisborne association has a New Zealander xvith a local reputation. He.made one previous appoarence in Gisborne, and on that occasion suffered the loss oi his match owing to an outburst of temper in which he tossed the ringside chairs at his opponent. Since then ho has passed a probationary period, and it is understood that lie no longer throws chairs. Nevertheless, he puts plenty of vim into his work in the ring, and as he and Pereira appear to be evenly matched in physique, he will have to produce his best form to hold his own against the ringcraft of his opponent. Blomfield is by no means undeveloped as a wrestler. No one could have come through a season: with Lurich in Australia, or through a season of open competition in the United States, without learning a great deal about the game, and Blomfield has met and extended such men. as Brown, cxcliampion of the world, in the course of his career. Patrops of to-morrow’s tournament in Gisborne should have their money's worth of excitement and solid wrestling.