WRESTLING

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3182, 26 May 1932, Page 8

WRESTLING

BAYNE BEATEN. SLOW-MOTION BOUT AT WELLINGTON. Considerable interest was shown in Te Awamutu in the wrestling contest in Wellington last Monday evening in which W. Bayne, of Te Awamutu, was engaged. The following report of the bout is from Tuesday's Dominion:— Small, nuggety and wearing a look of deep concern, Anton Koolman defeated his slow-motion opponent, Bill Bayne, by straight falls in a professional wrestling match at the Town Hall last evening. Whether it was from lack of condition or from sheer ignorance of the mat game. Bayne was something of a frost from start to finish. After the deciding fall in the fourth round he resembled for a few moments the dying gladiator immortalised by Byron. Koolman was almost invariably the prime mover in what action the bout possessed. The match was the principal item on a programme organised by the committee responsible for a fund which has been opened " to assist ' Dorrie ' Leslie to accept the honour of starting athletic events at the Olympic Games/' As the match was a benefit match it would hardly do, even indirectly, to look a gift horse in the mouth. But the fact remains that as far as excitement went it was reminiscent of the well-known McDougall v. Hogg contest of two seasons ago, which attracted to the mat pennies, programmes, corks and a " dead marine." Koolman won the first fall with a reserve body-hold, pinning Bayne 1 min 55 sec. after the match commenced.

This was a bad opening for Bayne and he took the offensive momentarily as round two began. Very soon however, he suffered a relapse, and as round three got under way it must have dawned on the audience that the small and wiry Koolman was either " on top " or " behind " continuously. Bayne was sluggish and handicapped probably by having nothing to catch ho 7 d of. Koolman was much shorter and lighter. He weighed lOst. 121 b. to Bayne's 12st 81b. But he was much more active than the heavy man and at the same time a masterpiece of evasiveness. The fourth round wore on unexcitingly until Koolman pinned Bayne for the second and deciding fall at 5 min. 25 sec. Although it might have performed a good deal, the audience went quietly. It was a pity that Koolman did not have a more equal opponent. Mr J. Lack refereed last evening's work-out.