CYCLE OF TROUBLE

NZ Truth, Issue 1262, 6 February 1930, Page 4

CYCLE OF TROUBLE

Wrestler Escapes Legal Throw

CASE DISMISSED

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Dunedin Rep.) TOMMY WALKER, 'ex - champion * 'wrestler of New Zealand, was al - ways noted for the way he could extricate himself from an opponent's deadly grip. In the Dunedin Police Court the other day, Walker, with the aid of counsel, managed to liberate himself from the clutches of a criminal charge involving the alleged theft of a bicycle valued at £8/15/-. ' After hearing the evidence of both sides, the magistrate allowed Walker to leave the "mat" without any "fall" recorded- against his character. ( . Robert George Bask'ett . said that m May, 1928, he bought a new bicycle. In March, the following year, he missed it from the backyard of his home m High Street, and reported the matter to the police. On" December 12 last, he saw the bicycle m High Street, identifying the machine by the pedals. To Mr. Anderson, who appeared for Walker, Baskett said that the ; machine, as it appeared m court, was not made up of the original parts, but theframe and the pedals he recognised as belonging to his machine.. .-■' * Detective Hart gave evidence to the effect that on^ -December 13 he interviewed Walker," Avho declared that he had found the bike frame on the St. Kilda rubbish dump. • Taking the frame home, he had constructed the present bicycle by adding his own saddle,, handles and wheels. Walker and his son, Thomas Edward Hamilton Walker, both gave evidence along the lines stated m the detective's evidence. Both sides produced cycle experts to pass an opinion on the feasibility or otherwise of the machine having been j constructed from a discarded frame. For the defence, John Billington, laborer m charge of the St. kilda rubbish tip, said that it was quite a regular thing for old bicycle frames to be dumped on the tip. In dismissing the information, his Worship ordered the cycle to *be returned to Baskett.