Western Times, Devon and Cornwall wrestling championship: Rundle, Pike and Baker — Argus (1882)

DEVON AND CORNWALL WRESTLING “CHAMPIONSHIP.”

Rundle has thrown Pike several times, but it is a question whether any match between them was really for the championship. Any promoter of Wrestling could, and often does, put up prizes and call them for the championship; but this does not make them so—otherwise there would be no end of champions now living.

There can be no doubt that the one most fairly entitled to be called the champion was Samuel Rundle: in 1867 he threw fairly Thomas Cooper, who was then the champion, although the match then played between them was not strictly for the championship. Oliver, Bickell, Ash, Pike, Milton, Baker, Burley, Moor, Hill, Marshall, Bragg, Gidley, Puckey, Ellis, Tapper, Jago, Rowe, Hutchings, and a host of others have fallen before Rundle, so that, as the above includes all the best wrestlers of his time, he must assuredly have been the champion. Even champions do not exist for long.

It was not until his defeat of Jabez Chapman, in London, in 1877, that his dominance was complete. Since then Rundle’s wrestling career has been far from a successful one. He met at Plymouth Joseph Meneer, of London; this match was anything but a satisfactory one. He played another match with Samuel Battishill, and this was no improvement upon the other. A dispute arose between the combatants during the contest. Feeling dissatisfied with this, they again met at Dartmouth in 1880; here they entered with the other players for the purpose of deciding who really was the better man. The play between them was of a lively and determined character, yet at the end of an hour neither was considered victor.

In one of the contests played at Plymouth, Rundle and Pike had some terrific encounters, in which, ere they were ended, several hours elapsed. Here Pike, for the first time, literally wore out Rundle, and made good his first claim to the belt. Since this time Rundle has not appeared in anything like his old form. Consequently Pike’s claim to the championship dates from this. Unfortunately it was since this that Pike was defeated by Robert Baker. So that even now Pike’s claim to the championship is somewhat vague. Argus.