Haltwhistle Carnival

Sunday, 9th July 2023

Peacock’s strut their stuff at Haltwhistle

By Robert Wharton

After a blank weekend the previous week wrestling returned with a bang at a warm and sunny
Haltwhistle Carnival. It was great to see the carnival back up and running after a break since 2019
due to COVID.

Here wrestling and the commentator have to compete with the funfair, floats and the music coming
from the stage. The carnival is also a great venue as there are always plenty of locals keen enough
and prepared to “have a go” for the first time.

For this reason one of the classes is the prestigious Novice open section. This is where senior men,
who have never registered a win before, can enter in the knowledge they will not come up against a
professional like “Jack Brown” or a “Thomas Gibson.” A closely fought category seen a final
between Joe Coates and James Blackburn. Joe Coates had the edge in wrestling experience and his
twists won the day. Joe walked away with the Chris Walton memorial trophy.

The rest of the categories went the way of seasoned wrestlers and in particular the Peacock family
had a great day. In the under 15’s George Peacock hiped and twisted his way to a win over Bobby
Stewart in the final. In the early round George took Aaron Oliver on a move called the “aeroplane
swing”, four times round before felling him. It prompted the commentator to say “that would have
cost you a fiver on the funfair, that ride!”

George was pushed a bit further in the under 18’s and had to be at his best to defeat Sam
Hindmarch in the final. Sam showed up well in every class he entered and deservedly won the best
performance. It was then over to Ellena Peacock who neatly twisted and buttocked Ella Akdeniz to
win both the Girl’s under 17’s and open class.

Earlier on in the wrestling Isaac Stainton needed to draw on the skills learnt over the winter on the
mats to fell a bunch of Haltwhistle lads. The final of the under 10’s seen Joe Coates (junior) in the
final with Isaac, where Isaac’s back heels seen him claim victory and also the eye of the best junior
performance judge.

The final two classes went the way of Jack Brown (13 stones) and Thomas Gibson (AW) where both
had to fell the excellent Matthew Lamont and Jack Ewart.

Thomas and Jack, along with several others, had come fresh from a weekend of updating their
wrestling coaching skills. A worthwhile, enjoyable and thought provoking weekend of brushing up
on tuition advice was carried out by representatives from the British Wrestling association.

 

Prizes to 3rd place.

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Results