Giants of the Mat

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1065, 1 September 1930, Page 13

Giants of the Mat

SUPER-HEAVYWEIGHT VOGUE

Jiu-Jitsu Innovations

ANEW trend in the wrestling boom in Australia this season has been the importation of super-heavy-weights of the calibre of “Strangler” Lewis, Dr. Sarpolis, Cantowine and Straek. All of these men are more than lost in weight, and Lewis himself is as heavy as the colossal Ike Robin was in his wrestling prime.

“The Strangler” has evidently created an immense stir in Australia by his size and his deadly headlocks. Norman McCance. the well-known critic, gives the following account of his recent match against Sarpolis in Melbourne: Like Ted Thye, Ed (“Strangler”) Lewis seems to act as a foil to lesser men, bringing out in them the finest qualities of their wrestling. Against Lewis, Charlie Straek had appeared at his best, while on Saturday, at the Melbourne Stadium, Dr. Karl Sarpolis (lost 21b) reached rare heights of brilliancy before bo too was weakened and overwhelmed with the same irresistible and inevitable pressure of headlocks. The feature of the Sarpolis match, however, was that the Greek doctor won a sensational fall against Lewis in the fourth round, a spectacular coup that was hailed with an amazing outburst of enthusiasm among spectators, most of whom seemed to favour the slim and agile Greek. It was one of the finest displays of fast and open wrestling on record in the Melbourne Stadium. Sarpolis was positively dazzling in his versatility and speed, as with calm assurance he tackled his burly opponent. I do not think that Lewis had troubled much with training during the week. He looked considerably “short of a gallop,” and at half-time was puffing and blowing like a distressed draught horse. But there is in his wrestling a strapge quality of threatening danger, of untouched reserves of strength coordinated with deadly purposefulness. So that, while at times he was hard pressed, and though harassed and harried by punishing holds, he dominated the ring by sheer force of personality, and never looked a loser, even after the fall against him. Like a bull pestered by a gallant little fox terrier, he battled grimly onward, -and somehow those who appreciated his powers could not help feeling sorry for the plucky little dog. SARPOLIS AS ANATOMIST Sarpolis Is an accomplished anatomist, as well as a skilled wrestler. Tie mingled strange jiu-jitsu tricks with his work, and at the outset had Lewis jumping and grimacing in pain with a standing armbar combined with a downward wrenching twist of the the referee hold, and Lewis protested to the referee, who seemed to accept Sarpolis’s gestured explanation that the wrench was at tlie base of the thumb. The doctor’s counter to many of the earlier headlocking attacks was to drive his thumbs hard into the carotid arteries. A little experiment under the angle of the jaw, two inches below the ear, will indicate how Lewis felt. Generally Sarpolis completely outwrestled a man 211 b. heavier than himself, but the pace was too good to last. A headlocking attack in the fourth round left Sarpolis apparently groggy and reeling against the ropes. As Lewis rushed in for the fourth headlock. Sarpolis leapt high in the air, smacked his knees across Lewis’s ribs in the flying scissor, and brought him crashing down to the canvas. It was a perfectly timed move, and the right knee came with a jolt against the solar plexus, so that Lewis was probably a trifle winded. Exerting full pressure of his legs, and trussing Lewis up with an armhold and facebar. Sarpolis pinned him squarely at lm. 28s. The scene of excitement that followed the coup will long be remembered, and the applause and cheering lasted throughout the succeeding interval. It seemed as Lewis was U«rd pressed indeed in the following round, for he resorted to the use of the ropes to escape the doctor’s holds, and scrambled out of the ring to free himself from another body scissors. Then Sarpolis began to “fade” as he had done against Cantowine. Headlocks in remorseless succession took toll of his waning strength, and while he was floundering Lewis clouted him once, staggeringly, with cupped hands. A cross-buttock throw and a wrenching side headlock pinned the Greek at sm.

425. in the sixth round. lie was foolish enough to make a desperate effort to repeat his flying scissors coup in the seventh round; but this leaping attack must bo timed to the fraction of a second, or its reaction may prove disastrous. In his match with Cantowine, Sarpolis leapt and missed, hitting his head against the ropes and partly dazing himself. This time Lewis seemed to invito the attack off the ropes, and as the doctor jumped Lewis braced himself for the impact, with feet widespread, and, catching Sarpolis with a bear’s hug around the body, leaned forward and downward, pinning him at 4m 51s. in the winning fall, thumb. It was a move applied from