Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-12-18
WRESTLING
Great Tournament Held last Even. Ing With Swanson aud Mon-
 tssnu Winners.

in Concordia hall last night attract cd good crowd and both matches were of the star order. It was the entering wedge for the opening of the wrestling season and was given under the auspices of the Windsor Athletic club. There Is no doubt but that other matches will be given during the winter and if they are all as good as the one last evening then the lovers of the game will be well pleased. Other contests are now in the works and 1t is possible that the winner of the preliminary last night may be matched against the winner of the main go.
 In the preliminary John Welt of this city known as the strong Ger man boy, and Louis Montagnu of Torrington, the best Italian wrestler of his weight around these parts, were pitted against each other It developed early in this battle that Welt had not yet thoroughly mas tered the rudiments of the wrestling game. He has the. youth and strength and under the careful in- struction of a man who is well up in the wrestling game he ought to make d good wrestler. He was mostly on the defensive last evening, but when ever he did get on top he seemed to be lost as to how to proceed to get a hold. Many times through his strength alone he broke from several wicked holds that Montagnu had on him. The burly Italian became "n- gry several times and called the at- tention of the referee to the position that Welt was taking on the mat. As there are no rules under which they were wrestling which desiG- mated just how a man should work on the mat, the referee could not change the condition of affairs. Montagnu finally became angry when he saw that Welt was simply going to try to hold him off and not try for fall himself, and he tossed the German boy around the mat in great shape. He secured the toe hold sev- eral times, but it was broken on each occasion. He finally began to pick Welt up from the floor and toss him to the mat. In one of those miXups Welt called to the referee, arose from the mat and said that he was injured and would be unable to con- tinue. He claimed foul, which was not allowed, and the match vas awarded to Montagnu.
 In the final contest Alex Swanson of this city faced Cyclone" Morin, the Flying Frenchman of Fall River Swanson did not appear as we'll trained as on other occasions and lacked little of the old time speed, but the crafty skill of the wrestler, who understands every in and out of the grappling game, was very much in evidence. MOrin stripped we'll. lie was in perfect condition and tow cred head over Swanson. Each began an aggressive game, with Swanson forcing his man at every step. When Morin did take the mat with Swanson on top. the husky local man began to show all tie | tricks in the trade, but Morin was clever, too, and broke from what looked like many deadly lock
 Morin was on top himself several times and had Swanson going toward a fall when the old arm roll was 1 worked cleverly and the positions were reversed. At the end of six minutes Swanson secured half N9l- son and bar lock and Morin's shoul-
 ders went to the mat for the first
 fall. After ten minutes intermis- sion they went at it again with MOrir
 the fresher of the two. The Fal
 River man worked hard on Swan. son and the latter had several nar. TOW escapes. Finally Morin trapped Swanson into the same kind of holds he had secured himself in the first
 fall and Swanson hit the mat a losal in the second fall in eleven minutes The last meeting of the two was { corker, for Swanson went fast fol
 his man and kept him on the jumI continually. He secured all kin k
 of holds and as fast as one was
 broken went for another. It was
 only question of time when either
 would secure a fall for both were
 tirlng rapidly. Again Swanson
 trlcked his opponent into the hall
 Nelson and bar lock and Morin went
 down for the third fall in twelve
 minutes.
 Manager Levasseur at the conclu. l sion of the match issued a challenge | to Swanson to meet his man MOrIr again for a $100 side bet, and this may be accepted later. Montagnu st
 the conclusion of his bout issued q challenge to wrestle any man in the country at ITO pounds. Morin and
 his manager left last night for New | Haven, where they too~ the late
 train for Massachusetts, as there is 2 big match on in Holyoke this evening
 md one in New Bedford. Manager Carroll of the Windsor Athletic cIul
 also left for Holyoke this morning tt
 take in the sports.