Groom and Best Man Fight After Wedding

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1051, 15 August 1930, Page 1

Groom and Best Man Fight After Wedding

BRIDE LEFT LAMENTING HONEYMOON ON BAIL Special to THE SUN * INVERCARGILL, Today. There is at least one bride in New Zealand who will lor ever condemn drink at weddings. She was married yesterday in a pretty little church some 40 miles from Gore, and when all the celebrations were over the obliging best man volunteered to drive the bride and bridegroom to Gore, where they were to catch the train for the North. Rice and confetti having been showered on the bride, and the male occupants of the car having been "lubricated," the happy trio set out. Whether fate was unkind or whether drinking and driving did not .mix, the fact remains that the journey was subject to many delays and misadventures, with the result that the party arrived at Gore too late to catch the train.

It was not unnatural for the bridegroom to feel somewhat annoyed that his visions of speeding North with the woman of his choice should be so rudely dispelled. Seated in the car in the main street of Gore, the best man and the bridegroom began to snarl at each other and linally an old grievance was remembered and what was originally merely a spirituous argument became a very spirited one. To the dismay of the bride, the two men decided to see who really was the "best” man and stepped out on to the road.

The bridegroom deemed it proper to divest himself of his coat, but not so his opponent, who landed a lightning left before the groom squared up. A bloodthirsty battle then followed. The thirst the men had previously quenched so effectively prevented much blood being shed, for the blows nearly - all missed their mark. The bride was left to feel the ring round her third finger, and see a much more animated ring form round the postnuptial pugilists. This novel way of celebrating a honeymoon was brought to a sudden end by the arrival of the police. The combatants were arrested, taken to the police station and locked up for the rest of the afternoon. As the evening shadows fell, even the heart of the police sergeant was touched with pity for a bride who had so unexpectedly been overtaken by a night of loneliness. At S.p.m. the sergeant’s heart melted and a chastened husband was allowed (on bail) to resume his shattered honeymoon until the police court opened next morning. “Each man will be fined £l,” said the magistrate, when on the morning after the night before the bridegroom and the best man pleaded guilty to fighting in a public place.