Featherston: Wrestlers' gold

Blind wrestler Clinton Davies is the latest Kiwi wrestler to have launched a medal-winning career on the mat from a humble tin shed in Featherston.
Davies, 28, took up the sport on a whim after settling in the small Wairarapa town with his family about 12 years ago.
He was studying business administration at the then-Wairarapa Community Polytechnic and was eager to take up a pursuit outside the classroom.
"I was bored and just reading a book one night at home. My little brother got all excited about a pro-wrestling club in the town," Davies said.
"He was only about 9 or 10, so I humoured him and we both went down to a little tin shed in Fitzherbert St.
"It was actually an amateur wrestling club and my brother didn't last long after that. I've always enjoyed being physical and kept going along, even though I lost every match for the two years I was wrestling there."
Davies is today based in Auckland, where he trains adult and junior classes at Club Physical in Te Atatu, and is hellbent on representing New Zealand at the Olympic Games in London next year.
He treads the ring in the footsteps of several notable Kiwi wrestlers who have fought for the Featherston club, including Commonwealth Games medallist Robert Algie and Nigel Sargent and national figures in the sport, Keith Scott and Wayne Thurston.
Davies' road to the Olympics was smoothed earlier this year after he took silver in both the Greco-Roman and the Freestyle events at the Oceania Wrestling Competition in Apia. He is rated second in New Zealand in Greco, preferring the style as it allows him to use his technique of capturing his rival and not letting go.
Greco-Roman is a traditional form of wrestling in which wrestlers may use only their arms and upper bodies to attack and may hold only those parts of their opponents. Freestyle wrestlers may use their arms, bodies and legs and may hold opponents above or below the waist.
Davies said his training regime is the same as a sighted wrestler and he counts his lack of sight as both boon and bane.
He said some opponents underestimate him and others are made more ferocious "because they don't want to lose to a blind man".
"Everybody reckons the blind have better hearing or smell or something.
"But sight is so overwhelming that most people just don't pay attention to their other senses. I do. Everybody has weaknesses and I prefer Greco over Freestyle because in freestyle they can move a long way from you.
"My speciality is my strong groundwork and in Greco, I know how to bring an opponent into my space," Davies said. "It's so physically demanding - you have to be superstrong, superfit, superfast. It's a brutal sport."
Davies said he invests a lot of his time and energy, when not pursuing his own career goals, into training junior wrestlers at Club Physical.
He said Featherston wrestler Dylan Duffy is today "a thorn in the side" of his top juniors although he and his team welcome the rivalry.
Duffy, son of club secretary Joanne Duffy and husband Glenn, with whom she also shares the presidency, is one of a mass of up-and-coming wrestlers at the Featherston club.
Duffy, 13, won gold at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships in Hamilton in April and twice came away with gold at the North Island Championships held in the same city last month, to which the Featherston club took a team of 10 juniors.
Other Featherston wrestlers to score medals and places at the North Island Championships were Thomas Uatuku, gold, Wade Lovett, bronze, Tristan Williams, 4th, Gracyn Evans, gold, Jeremy Thurston, 4th, Jordan Thurston, silver, Joshua Bucknell, bronze, Luani Ammunson, 5th, and Matt Vollerbret, silver.
Mrs Duffy said Featherston club coaches are Bevan Thurston and Peter Lovett, and club referee is Wayne Thurston. Sponsors include Adamsons Garage and Trust House.
Training is on Wednesdays for an hour from 6pm for under-10s and for an hour from 7pm for wrestlers aged 10 and over. Club fees for under-10s are $40, $55 for 10 to 13-year-olds and $60 for 13 to 16-year-olds. Discounts are available for families with two or more wrestlers.
Former national and international athletes and officials who have emerged from the Featherston Wrestling Club include:
Keith Scott QSM - the cornerstone of the Featherston Wrestling Club after starting his career in the town when he was 14. He remained in the sport for the next 50 years, winning the New Zealand lightweight title and the HM Allen Cup for Most Scientific Wrestler in 1970. Scott served for many years as the Featherston Wrestling Club secretary and was variously a national club secretary, executive, deputy and president from 1966 to 1973. He also served as a member of the NZ Olympic and CG Association and as Oceania Wrestling Federation president. He was awarded the Queen's Service Medal in 1989 for his services to wrestling.
Wayne Thurston - joined the Featherston Wrestling Club referee in 1987 and is the club referee. According to an online history of wrestling in New Zealand, Thurston had never before wrestled and watched matches and training for two years before deciding to referee. Mr Thurston is a life member of the Featherston club and has served as the New Zealand Olympic Wrestling Union director of officials and head of the officials panel.
Robert Algie - the late Commonwealth games silver medallist at Edinburgh 1986 in 100kg and gold medallist at the Oceania Champs in Brisbane in 1981, and Auckland in 1986. Algie, who was deaf, placed 12th at the World Championships in France in 1987, which would have qualified him for the Seoul Olympics, but he became ill with cancer and died in October 1989.
Nigel Sargent - Commonwealth games bronze medallist at Brisbane 1982 in 90kg and 4th at Edmonton in 1978.