RAINES BEATS KENNEDY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19667, 27 June 1938, Page 13

RAINES BEATS KENNEDY

ONLY MODERATE DISPLAY BOUT GOES FULL DISTANCE CRITICAL SECTION Expectations of a fast display of resourceful wrestling were ‘not fulfilled by the professional wrestling match between Dick Raines and Jack Kennedy, staged in the Opera House on Saturday night. The contest was only moderately interesting, and the decision on points in favour of Raines was the signal for a demonstration of ' disapproval by a large section of the j audience.

The contest gave the impression that Kennedy was overmatched, and that Raines could not ge.t going properly against him. The weights were even at 16.4, according to the official declara-

tion., but Kennedy did not look

powerful as his opponent. Nevertheless. he became the favourite of the crowd, Raines promoting sympathy for him by a variety of tactics which brought down the wrath of spectators.

Refereeing the match. Mr. T. Smale was called on frequently to restrain Raines, and was criticised by ringsiders for allowing the “Cowboy” to use his elbows and fists in the breaks. Things were very quiet for two rounds, wristTocks, short-ann scissors, and toe-tolds with hackneyed forms of showmanship leaving the audience cold, though there was some rise in the temperature when Raines began to work on a hammcrlock which he held through two flying mares. There was some gentle gouging and jolting, but this did not rouse the audience much.

In the third round Raines exploited the “bull-dogger,” first advertised m New Zealand by Chief Little Wolf, and later Kennedy, who had the audience well on his side, was applauded for clouting Raines, whose complaints to the referee were derided vigorously by the patrons. Raines showed a good deal of acrobatic talent in his use of the l'opes. j Only Temporary Advantage The fourth was a round of greater activity, with shoulder charges figuring

prominently, and Raines bringing clown , criticism from the audience by iris objections to Kennedy’s jolting. He spent far too much time walking round the ring, for the majority of the patrons. A surfboard hold applied by Raines in the fifth round gained him only a temporary advantage, the referee breaking the hold when they got into ■ the ropes. Kennedy had the better of j ■this rouhd by a good margin. j A return to the quieter methods of 1 the early rounds marked the opening of the sixth, but toe-'to-toe exchanges of buffets livened things again, Kennedy eventually dumping the cowboy, ■but being unable to pin him down. At the end of the round Raines was on top. The referee went in to Kennedy’s assistance repeatedly in the seventh round, when Raines used an arm-bar and did his best, apparently, to break his opponent’s arm over the top rope. The crowd, by this time well against the cowboy, was more than delighted ! when Kennedy turned the tables and , used the same tactics on Rakvos. I

The final round promised to be short, when Raines, coming; out aggressively, exploited his “back-break-er,” which is a dump in which the pall lent is lifted off the canvas and dropped across the thigh of the aggressor. The exhibition deteriorated into a farce, however, when Raines, lifting his opponent on to 'his shoulder -and spinning him a few times, seemed unable to shake him off, and finally lay down with him. There was a bit of by-play in and out of tjhe ring in the last minute, and the referee’s declaration of Raines as the winner gave much dissatisfaction to at, least a large section of the audience.