THEY DIDN'T BHU PINDER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 15, 6 October 1939, Page 40

THEY DIDN'T BHU PINDER

McCready’s Narrow Victory Extra-specially written for "The Listener" by our Auckland representative, who knows nothing about wrestling (bad luck!), but who can always appreciate the sight of someone else "on the mat." Livelier than his opponent and more slippery, apparently, than a buttered eel, Prince Bhu Pinder gave the British Empire heavyweight champion, Earl McCready, almost as much as he took in the big mat-fest at Auckland Town Hall on September 25, and McCready just managed to keep his hold on the title by one fall, secured in the seventh round following three hearty dumps and a storm of elbow-jolts. McCready weighed in at 16.12 and Pinder at 16.5. From the opening gong Pinder had the sympathy of the crowd and went bald-headed for the champion, using his superior speed and agility to offset the disparity in weight and strength. With a series of headlocks and arm-bars Pinder patiently pumped the well of Canadian perspiration until McCready looked like a Mounty that has missed his man. But the champion broke free, and coming round behind, grabbed the Indian’s leg, working into a toe-hold which made Bhu look even more sikh than usual. The latter jerked clear, however, and regained the initiative once more with a half-nelson which McCready broke by sheer force of avoirdupois only to fall into a horizontal splits with Pinder seeing how far apart he could get the Canadian legs. The gong interrupted the experiment. McCready had slightly the better of it in the second round, Pinder at one stage crawling through the ropes, but the latter was as brisk as ever in attack while the Canadian was sweating so profusely that he did not even need a best friend to tell him. Pinder was apparently the more difficult to hold, however, and McCready several times ostentatiously wiped his hands on the ropes, the fans expressing appropriate displeasure. The third round opened with McCready throwing Pinder to the mat, but he just bounced twice and came up again and the pair traded facebars and leg-scissors in the friendliest fashion. Pinder, apparently as fresh as ever, was busy stretching McCready’s arms when the gong went, . The temperature rose noticeably in the fourth and fifth rounds. Pinder opened hostilities in the latter by slinging the champion

out of the ring then, when he got back, punting him across the ring by the judicious use of a bare foot in the vicinity of the Canadian Maginot line. As an indication of his annoyance McCready passed out a convincing line of elbow-jolts, Bhu retorting in kind with a selection of his native punjabs which brought the crowd to its feet, and then buzzed McCready hard against the ropes, avoiding the recoil with a _ nifty little entrechat which would not have disgraced Nijinsky. The Spirit of Ottawa was noticeably absent when the sixth round opened. Pinder slammed McCready, McCready tried pulling Bhu’s toes off, and to even things the Indian rocked the champion in a standing splits. In the sixth and seventh rounds Pinder had McCready on the defensive when the Indian several times tried to put over his crab specialty, but Pinder never got a proper chance to exploit the hold. The seventh round was noticeably uninhibited. Pinder began by depositing McCready (none too gently) almost on top of 1YA’s Gordon Hutter, who, however, with his customary sangfroid, continued crooning his commentary into the mike. But the champion was no sooner in the ring again than Pinder took another lease of Canadian overhang and repeated the experiment. This was too much. The McCready patience, worn threadbare, collapsed, and Pinder’was chased round the ring with a barrage of elbow-jolts, dumped hard twice in succession and then, somewhat dazed, succumbed to a third dump, giving the title-holder the one fall of the match. Pinder was still lively in the final round, but though he threw McCready twice and worked energetically on toe-holds and’ wristlocks, he could make no serious impression on McCready, and the final gong went leaving the Canadian the winner by the one fall.