Crikey! In any country, this is not fair

 

G'day. Today is Australia Day, in case you galahs didn't know. Before I shoot through like a Bondi tram to open a few tinnies in celebration, I wanted to say a word about the story "Duquesne to Cut Four Men's Teams." What a shame this is.

I feel for all the Duquesne baseball players, swimmers, golfers and wrestlers who upheld school pride and now get kicked in the teeth for their efforts. They all have a claim on our sympathies but I have a special sadness that the wrestlers are getting bureaucratically pinned. Increasingly, amateur wrestling is a sport without friends. That is its own injustice, because few sports challenge an athlete more. Few build more character.

As it happens, I went to an Oz Day Party in Wexford Saturday evening and our host - an American guy married to an Aussie lady - turned out to be an ex-college wrestler. In between meat pies, I heard him wax eloquent on how alone the wrestler was on the mat, just him grappling with his opponent, and how Western Pennsylvania has always been a stronghold for the sport of wrestling - all of which I knew.

I was never a wrestler myself except, you know, bills and such. But I feel that Duquesne is not just losing  one sport, this region is losing part of its identity.

Crikey! Duquesne is coming the raw prawn.