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Scottish Backhold Wrestling & Rob Roy

Extract from An Article
by William Baxter
from
The Scottish Banner, June 1999

Just what is backhold wrestling? Well, first of all, it was the sport at which the great Donald Dinnie started his incredible career to become the world's first international sports super star. Dinnie won his first money prize, the princely sum of one Pound Sterling in 1853 at the age of 16, when he beat David Forbes the Heavyweight wrestling champion of Deeside by five falls. Later he won matches in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and many other countries in a variety of styles. But that first victory was always the sweetest. Another famous wrestler was Rob Roy MacGregor. In the tiny village of Milngavie [*] he used to sell his cattle his cattle at a small tryst, and when he had closed the deal, he would often challenge any of the locals to wrestle. Despite his fame as a cateran, there was always a taker; but Rob Roy usually won. Wrestling was just one of the highly developed survival skills the Captain of the outlawed Clan Gregor had mastered. In that very dangerous period at the end of the 17th Century, the MacGregors trained very methodically.

As the name suggests the wrestlers grip each other around the waist at the back, the right hand goes under the opponent's left arm and the chin rests on the opposite right shoulder. When the referee is sure that both wrestlers have taken a firm grip, he shouts "hold" and the bout starts. Should either wrestler break his hold or touch the ground with any part of his body except his feet he loses. There is no ground work and bouts are usually best of five falls. ...

Many highland games were founded in the early 19th Century, but the oldest have been going on for hundreds of years. Ceres Games in fife, one of the smallest, was founded in 1314 to celebrate the victory of Robert the Bruce over the English at Bannockburn. .....

[* CapScot Ed. Note: pronounced MUL-GUY and located by Glasgow/Bearsden]

Visit the Scottish Wrestling site.

Credits:
Original © Copyright by William Baxter. Used by permission of the author.
© Copyright The Scottish Banner 1999. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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