Wrestling Heritage

No mention was made of points decisions to be required this time for three very short bouts.  This was a sure sign of something dodgy ....

 

Emcee Roy Harding bungled the intros at the start and then demanded of the ITV technicians “Strike that!”.  He went on to make a better fist of take two, but we viewers were treated to both performances.

 

Dave Duran vs Marty Jones

Cheshire’s Duran was billed from Ireland for the purposes of this International KO.  He teetered from good guy to villain, with a mix of handshakes and anger.  But he did his job very well, arms almost permanently by his sides as champion Jones looked good and sporting all the way, culminating in a reverse power lock submission.

 

Lenny Hurst vs Scott McGee

Seldom have I seen so many handshakes as in the second semi-final.

Lenny Hurst used to be from Montego Bay in my day but here he was, dumbed down to Jamaica in the mid-eighties.  In any case, Kent told us he had a pub in Camberwell, but that wouldn’t have had the right feel for this international tournament.

Scott McGee was from America.  Kent was able to specify Tampa, but was concerned about how the new boy would adapt to civilised British rules – Kent was never happy with all-in style at all, a true custodian of all that was British.

But McGee turned out to be more British than the Brits themselves, handshaking gracefully at every turn, even after he himself had caught a nasty blow to the chin.

The boy could sure wrestle.  He was a protegé of Geoff Portz.  This already had me a wondering, and, particularly since Lenny Hurst had been living in Florida, the connections piled up.

Kent then let drop his weekly slip:  Scott had been wrestling since he was six, when he trained at a Bradford gym.  The struggle to comprehend 6-y-o Scottie flying BOAC over the pond on a weekly basis alone in 1965 for his training was finally settled by subsequent confirmation that he was indeed Geoff’s son.

The bout was skilful and fast, only the ending was bungled twice as the pair bumped into each other rather than agreeing on a suitable take down for the folding press which, rather tamely, saw the Floridian progress to the final.

 

McGee vs Jones

McGee was strangely required to stay in the ring and await his refreshed opponent.  Even snooker players demand and get a break!

The final was very entertaining and each gave as good as they got.  McGee made a truly spectacular spinning head scissors attempt for the first fall, but couldn’t get the shoulders down and had to relent.  Quickly afterwards it was Marty Jones in familiar fashion banging the canvas after going behind.

An equaliser followed, and the final session was exciting as both wrestlers gave of their all.  Joe D’Orazio, generally unobtrusive and unspectacular, was seen at his agile best, racing from side to side of the ring, now upside down, now sliding and sprawling, to count out the winning fall which never came.

I was awaiting a points verdict, and the emcee made some rather contradictory comments, but McGee vs Jones duly went on to play to audiences around the land.

 

4-man KO Tournament, Westlcliffe-on-Sea, 30th April.

 

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