CAVEMEN WRESTLERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 237, 27 December 1927, Page 1

CAVEMEN WRESTLERS

Wild and Woolly Night at Auckland Town Hall NEW ZEALANDER DISQUALIFIED A HANDFUL of spectators at the Auckland Town Hall last evening were treated to the wildest night’s entertainment that has been witnessed in Auckland since the Mac—Delaney boxing fiasco some months ago.

fjPHE ostensible reason for the evenA ing’s programme was a wrestling

match between one Pergantas, a Greek mat artist, and the New Zealand champion, Ern Anderson. Orthodox wrestling, however, was purely a sideline with the two gladiators, who punched, kicked and gouged at one another in caveman fashion, until the referee

merc.ifully intervened, and stopped the match by disqualifying the Maorilander. THE FUN STARTS The fun started while the men were in their corners. Anderson’s manager weighed in with a protest against the boots that Pergantas was wearing, and the authorities upheld his argument that the pedal extremities of the noble son of Atfiens were over-liberally protected by good American buckskin. Pergantas finally had to display his tootsies to the gaze of the vulgar multitude, and manage as best he could in his stockinged feet. Cheers greeted the decision of the New Zealander to remove his own boots, and wrestle on equal terms.

The first round was comparatively tame, but the two gladiators soon warmed up, and by the third, they were well in their stride, the wrestling (?) consisting of a combination of La Savate and Queensberry rules, with a few wrestling holds of rare and unknown vintage thrown in for good measure. HECTIC WORK * Who started the row, this deponent knoweth not. But it was fast and furious while it lasted. Once the men crashed clean off the mat, and there was a scatter as the two mastadons went hurtling into the Press tables in a flurry of flying legs and waving arms. A high police official was next in the line of fire, and on another occasion, the pair were at one another’s throats at the very feet of the audience, while the referee frantically tried to get them back to the mat. DISQUALIFIED Finally, after being warned for punching, Anderson was given his marching orders, and the referee adjudged Pergantas the winner. He was certainly the cleverer exponent of what passed for wrestling, but Anderson’s greater strength nullified all his attempts to pin the New Zealander to the mat. Apart from the question of allocating the blame for the disgraceful exhibition which was given last night, the referee acted wisely in bringing a most unsatisfactory business to a close when he did. Any attempt to revive wrestling in Auckland cannot hope to be successful if such displays as that witnessed last night are allowed to continue.