EMPIRE WRESTLING TITLE

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 21, 20 September 1940, Page 6

EMPIRE WRESTLING TITLE

Retained By Katan DRAWN MATCH WITH McCready — John Kajaiii retained the British ! Empire wrestling championship title as a result of his match with Earl McCready in the Wellington Town Hall on Monday night. The bout was drawn, neither obtaining a fall. -The match was very hard and lawless. At one stage the referee was projected from the ring. Both contestants completely exhausted themselves in vain efforts to force a decision. McCready weighed 17st. 21b., Katan 16st. 101 b. Mr. A. Jenkins refereed. There was a very large attendance. C McCready made good use of a powerful arm-bar for the greater part of the first round. Katan kicked him in the face and escaped, leaving McCready overhauling his jaw to be sure it was still working. Warned for punching McCready’s face when holding him in a headlock, Katan promptly did it again. The referee broke the hold,. Katan re-es-tablished it, knuckling McCready’s eye. When he broke free, - McCready tried a headlock, but Katan pushed him off by the face. They exchanged jolts; McCready’s proved the more effective. •’What d’you say?’’ asked the referee of Katan, who lay on his back, victim of a keylock.. Katan said nothing till McCready had twisted both his, legs into a' somewhat intricate pattern, whereon he grabbed the referee, and in the resultant confusion slipped away. Some brisk exchanges followed. Referee Thrown From Ring. Katan bent McCready backward over the ropes. Told to break, .he lodged a good-bye knock. When he pinioned McCready again, the referee was at hand to prevent a recurrence. But this time it was McCready who let.fly the parting jolt. Katan rushed at McCready, but the latter stood up and traded jolt for jolt. Katan ran away, and when McCready caught him, escaped into the. ropes. McCready was loath to,let him go. When he caught .him again :in a corner, the referee had to push between them to separate them. McCready promptly picked up both Katan and Mr; Jenkins in an armful, and heaved them out of the ring. Finding jolts of no avail, Katan drove a knee into McCready's face. McCready bumped Katan in a headscissors, Katan groaning and rubbing his pate. In the sixth round Katan jolted McCready and gave him an aeroplane spin —but McCready held him in a crucifix and was on top when they landed on the mat. The pace, furious throughout the bout, was by now telling on both wrestlers, and there was a brief lull, before the bout culminated at whirlwind tftnpo. McCready sent Katan rolling across the mat with flying tackles. He brought him down, head-over-heels, with a flying body-scissors. The crowd was on its feet as McCready strove to press Katan’s shoulders to the mat. Failing, he jolted Katan vigorously, and they rolled through the ropes interlocked, taking the referee with them. The contest closed with both wrestlers dazed with jolts staggering round the ring aiming ineffectual swings at one another.