Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507170095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
People around here take their family recreation seriously.
Forget the cookouts or the softball games. We're talking about skin-on-skin in the messiest three-minute battle in Montgomery County.
We're talking mud wrestling.
"People usually think of this with lounge bars," said Terry Caldwell, event organizer with the county's Parks and Recreation Department. "Nobody's made a recreational activity out of it before."
The "family affair," held Saturday at The Sportsman store just outside of town, drew about 100 spectators. Standing under a blistering noon sun, they cheered the few brave souls tough enough - or crazy enough - to step into the 8-foot square, homemade ring.
Stacy Owens and Burly Dalton coerced their friend Scott Simpkins into the ring, even paying the $5 entry fee for him. Needless to say, they weren't disappointed by the show.
Belly against slimy belly, Simpkins and his opponent, Preston Cox, groped for legs, necks and any other body part that could be forced into the 6 inches of mud.
Simpkins spent most of the match just trying to slither out of Cox's hold and grab a breath. After spewing out one too many gulp-fulls of brown mud, Simpkins forfeited and rushed to the nearby water hose to wash the muck off his face.
"Ugh, I can still taste it," he said as he wiped some grit from his upper teeth.
When someone offered him a beer for a rematch, Simpkins laughed.
"I couldn't drink enough beer to get back in that ring."
Of the eight or so matches, the roughest, fastest and messiest competition involved women.
Mud went flying when Judy Howard and Sandy Smith began twisting each other through the gloppy gunk. Referee Jim Henson had to blow his whistle twice, once to remind them that hair-pulling was not allowed and again to allow Smith to pull her bathing suit back in place.
Howard won with four points: two for a takedown, and two for escaping Smith's hold.
Even the sponsors got into the event, volunteering Dean Crane, a director with the Blacksburg Parks and Recreation Department.
Crane went up against Bill Jones. After three minutes of grappling, the two bearded men wobbled out of the ring like a couple of swamp creatures looking for a good time.
Even a dip in the nearby New River couldn't rid Crane of the mud.
"I've got it in my ears, it's in my eyes. Quite an experience," he said.
The experience earned more than $300 for the Parks and Recreation Department and left a few with a deeper appreciation for the joys of a clean body.
by CNB