Spartan Sydney
It was 33 degrees, and sticky, not the best weather for an Arm Wrestling get together, but such is life and the show must go on. Neil Bell picked me up from the airport and we set off for Surry Hills, the Sydney suburb where we were all meeting up. The venue was a flash hotel that Sam Saffuri was staying in and they were kind enough to allow us to use their outside entertaining area that had a huge swimming pool and bbq facilities. The planets had obviously all aligned as well because at the very same time there was a modelling photo shoot going on at the Hotel....with models over looking our battle area every now and then, the stakes just went up!
The first person to show up was Slavko who had the table, we set it up and had a few beers across the road while we waited for the others to come. In about an hour’s time we had 15-20 guys there all interested in arm wrestling! Neil ran the ‘brackets’ sorta with a short comment like ‘it’s you and you up now’...or..’You've had enough rest, your turn’. The first guy I had was Duncan who I top rolled easily (though he’s improved a lot since then), the next person I pulled was Guy Nesbit, a giant of a man and he stopped my hit and shoulder pressed me to the pad easily. From there the next 2 hours were a blur....
I remember a few wars, Guy and Joe had an epic right handed battle, Joe won it just but I think it took its toll on both of them, as neither of them had any more matches, with Joe perspiring heavily and Guy clutching his arm. Me and Slavko had a few outside battles with me eventually getting a win over him..just!
Ryan Phillips turned up almost 2 hours late and he was the chalk bringer and our first match took me completely by surprise, he top rolled me easily for the win. He had a good win over Joe left handed and had various other wins, only losing to Nick and me right handed as the day progressed.
Then walked in Sam, it was the first time most of us had met him, he didn’t look like much and Neil had talked him up a lot, so there was a lot of expectation, and we weren’t disappointed. He slammed every one of us like we were children, playing with us! His hit was like lightening, scary strong too. People were starting to leave now, most holding their arms is various positions that only other arm wrestlers could understand, but me, Ryan and Sam stayed on for another 2 hours. None of us even got close to pinning Sam right handed, it was only after many hours that Ryan almost got a win on Sam left handed..but it was a slip or something...poor lighting and beer was clouding my judgement by that stage so I knew it was my time to exit as well. Ryan took the table that night, Sam and Neil walked off into the busy night life of Surry Hills and me and my brother hailed a cab while I guzzled down some extra Voltaren, just for the ride!
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