AGE-OLD SPORT OF WRESTLING AT DEAD END IN NEW ZEALAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 103, 22 July 1927, Page 10

AGE-OLD SPORT OF WRESTLING AT DEAD END IN NEW ZEALAND

MELBOURNE MATCHES DRAW GREAT CROWDS, BUT GAME LAGS BEHIND IN DOMINION—PRESENT ACTIVITIES CENTRED IN AUCKLAND

Ten thousand people, in the semidarkness of the seating part of a great stadium focuss their eyes on two men who aT-e swaying and writhing, locked together beneath the brilliant beams of the floodlight that carves the ring out of the surrounding blackness. Suddenly one man loosens his grip, secures another in a flash, turns his opponent over, and presses the other fellow’s shoulders down. From the crowd comes a deep-throated roar that swells and reverberates, a roar of frenzied excitement, the roar of a crowd gripped in a passion that sweeps aside the niceties of civilisation and returns to the elemental. Closer and closer to the mat the shoulders sink. Inch by inch they are forced down, and the crowd’s roar crashes out with the deafening continuity of a stormwhipped sea smashing against a rockbound coast. The age-old sport of wrestling lacks the general public support that is given to other athletic sports, but in the places where wrestling is known its popularity is immense. Worldfamous wrestlers go to Australia; yet outside of Melbourne the sport is as little known in the Commonwealth as it is in the South Island of New Zealand. But the Melbourne Stadium draws thousands of spectators every Saturday evening, and no other crowd, be it gathered at a boxing match, a football game, or a horse race, reaches the frenzy of excitement of the wrestling crowd. WILL GAME TAKE ON HERE? It is hard to say whether the game will ever take on in New Zealand; certainly there is small chance of amateur wrestling achieving 4iiuch success as a competitive sport, and entries in the competitions at Caledonian Society sports have been diminishing for a' long time. Professional wrestling, however, might capture the public as it has captured the Melbourne public. The New Zealand Wrestling Association was formed in Auckland in 1922, with the object of controlling and encouraging the sport. Now it has the right to control any big matches held in the country. The manner in which it gained that power is interesting. About tw o years ago Christchurch sportsmen were interested in the announcement that a wrestling match had been arranged between the Russian A 1 Karasick and a New Zealander Joe Clark. The match was held, but the “Christchurch Sun” was sceptical about the bona fides of “Karasick” and followed a line of investigation that led to the exposure of the match as a fake. The New Zealand Wrestling Association sent a delegate to Wellington, armed with “The Sun’s” story of this match, and he interviewed the Minister of Justice and the Commissioner of Police on the question of control of future matches. The result was that Parliament passed an Act giving the association the controlling power. This means that the association safeguards the public against being taken in by a fraud like that staged at Christchurch. FIVE YEARS’ WORK The founder of the association was a well-known wrestler, T. Colledge, who is the present honorary secretary. The executive consists of well-known business men of Auckland, the president being Mr. George Henning, and the treasurer Mr. Kinnear Smith. So far. however, the association has not progressed enough to be able to promote regular amateur tourneys, for public interest is not yet fully awakened. But it has promoted a number of profes-

sional matches. Its first was between T. College and "Nugget” Thompson tor the middleweight championship of New Zealand and a £IOO stake. Colledge won. After he retired. Jowala, a Hindu met Thompson for the title, and beat him. Jowala has left the Dominion, and the middleweight title is vacant. Colledge held also the welterweight title when lie retired, and this crowd will be contested when an opponent can be found to wrestle with Johnnie Walker, of Dtinedin, for it. The heavyweight championship of New Zealand is held by Ernie Anderson, of Palmerston North, who is also the Cumberland wrestling champion of the Dominion. The light-heavy weight and heavyweight amateur titles are held by a youth named Bayne, of Kawhia, whose trainer is a Scot, who was nominated by Scotland to represent Great Britain in wrestling at the Olympic Games at Antwerp, but who, through some misunderstanding, did not compete. In all the professional matches mentioned here the sidestakes have been put up by the followers of the contestants. Although it is but a young body, the association has promoted a match for the biggest stake money ever put up for any SCHOLZ STILL WINNING Jackson Scholz, the great American runner, who kept New Zealand athletic timekeepers on the

qui vive last year, is apparently running in the States. Last month, in one of the e I i m i n ating tests for national sprint honours, he disposed of two of his most serious rivals in H ussey and Bowman in a great race. Running into a strong breeze on a lumpy track, he returned even time for the hundred, a brilliant performance under the conditions.