The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

WRESTLING. 67 hideous as any game of skill can be, and must have beenin­ vented by a man whose tastesfor the beautifulare abit off. No one seemed sorry when this bout was over."The very words, " to win a fall," showthat wrestlingis decided by how the competitors fall, not by what they do after they fall. If wrestling is to be altered from first down to lose to keeping a man down, the competitors may begin, as is sometimes done inLancashire, by lying down. In Lancashire style, all that has to be done to win is to put your opponent's shoulders both on the ground at once, no matter how short the time, if the judge can see them to be so. Yet it is sometimes two or three hours before a single fall is decided. Now, it is a condition in the Donald Dinnie style that a man must be fairly on his back. To be so, both shoulders and both buttocks must be on the ground, a much more difficult matter tobring about thanboth shoulders only. How is it that contests inthe Dinnie stylehave never taken more than a few minutes ? Simply because it is of so recent introduction, and so opposed to accepted ideas about wrestling, that competitorsin Scotland have never generally adoptedthe style, never practised it, nor entered into itsspirit. Had they done sohalf a dozen competi­ tors might wrestle during the wholetime agathering generally lasts, and the final falls not be reached at ics close. In most instances the one first down makes little orno effort either to fall so as not to be on his back, or to try and get up. In other cases the one who has put the other fairly down makes no at­ tempt to hold him down. In short, both feel that the contestis decided by how they fall; the onewho falls undermost feels it would be showing anger at his defeat tocontinue the struggle farther ; the one who isuppermost that it would be ungenerous to press a man after he is down. Many of the most exciting struggles that have takenplace inthis stylewere simply arranged beforehand to rouse and keep up public interestin it. The fact that a style introduced by one Scottishathlete for his own benefit, and supported by only a few other athletes, who like him wanted to make their strengthcounterbalance their want of skill, should