A VARIED CAREER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 76, 20 May 1946, Page 2

A VARIED CAREER

MR J. CREEKE

FORMER PROMINENT WRESTLER

Known throughout New Zealand and Australia as one of the “fathers” of wrestling, Mr J. Creeke, member of a prominent pioneer family at Whakatane, has had a varied career.

The following notice appeared in a recent issue of a Metropolitan Sports edition: Born at Whakatane 65 years ago, Mr Creeke was educated at St. Joseph’s College, Auckland, where he acquired an early interest in gymnastic work, boxing and wrestling, in 1898 he went to Californa, where he met the original “Terrible Turk” of the wrestling world! In 1900 Mr Creeke went to Australia, and rose to the rank of senior officer of fire service in the Sydney Fire Brigade. He became drili and gymnastic instructor to the New South Wales Fire Board, which controlled all the fire services throughout the State, but he did not lose interest in wrestling. Champion Defeated

In 1908 the champion Jack Carkeek toured Australia and offered £25 to anyone who could throw him. This offer Mr Creeke accepted, meeting and defeating him in the Tivoli Theatre, Sydney. “Before this,” Mr Creek said, “I won the Australian Cumberland style championship at a Highland gathering on the Sydney cricket ground in 1905. I was then about 14st 91b, and had defeated most of the professionals in Australia. Then, wrestling as a sport, both in Australia and in New Zealand, was not followed at all. Most of my opponents were Greeks, and the purse was usually £25 a side. The game was entirely different then. In those days our only following came from, our backers and crowds of gamblers.” In about 1909, the Russian' Hackenschmidt, then world charhpion heavyweight, visited Australia. Mr Creeke did not meet him in an organised bout, but wrestled with him in exhibition matches.

Official Referee

During his 25 years’ stay in Australia, Mr Creeke was official ref'eree to the New. South Wales amateur sporting club, and still, whenever the opportunity offered, wrestled in bouts himself. In 1926 he accepted the position of superintendent of the Wellington Fire Brigade, where he started wrestling as a sport. “At first,” he said, “our wrestling was confined to our own gymnasium, but later, in about 1928, we formed the Wellington Wrestling Association.” Mr Creeke became the first secretary of the New Zealand Wrestling Union. He is still a member of the union and of the Wellington Wrestling Association. Among the

professionals Mr Creeke was largely instrumental in bringing to New Zealand such men as Tom Alley, Clarence Ecklund, light-heavy-weight champion of the world, George Walker, and. many others. Included in the many bouts which Mr Creeke has refereed in New Zealand was the contest in which Lofty Blomfield, well known New Zealand wrestler, won the New Zealand amateur heavyweight championship.

Mr ''Creeke retired from the Wellington Fire Brigade in 1938 and in the same year managed a team of New Zealand amateur wrestlers competing in the British Empire Games at Sydney.