Hell-Fire 1 - 0 The Amazing Spider-Mouth
This was my second match in the same South Wales venue in three days. I had lost to Hell-Fire 1-0 in the very last moments of our first match in November 2017 and so I had targeted this rematch as being winnable especially after a creditable performance two days earlier (even if I say so myself!). This match took place on Friday morning, I arrived and Hell-Fire was already there and she had set up all the mats without any help from myself. We warmed up and changed into our kit. Hell-Fire wore grey sports bra and gym pants while I wore a red long sleeve top and grey training shorts.
We made a controlled start, getting down on the mats and gradually increasing the intensity until we were happy with the pace and intensity we were grappling at. I immediately noticed that Hell-Fire was much stronger than in November, especially her upper body. She was pinning my arms, and while I was able to squirm, struggle and keep one shoulder off the mats, I was having difficulty getting my arms off the mats. I had to bring my legs into play, capturing one of Hell-Fire?s legs and using it to pull myself in closer to get in position to roll side on.
Hell-Fire was making good use of her legs and when she was scissoring one of my legs she was looking for ways of straightening my leg or bending it sideways just using her legs. I was having to concentrate on keeping my leg bent the right way and on occasions my other leg had to come to the rescue to prevent her bending my leg straight at the knee. All highly technical stuff and very hard work for both of us at the same time.
While I was pinned on my back, Hell-Fire tried for an Americana but I managed to resist this and eventually escape. I had opportunities for half nelson moves but was unable to capitalise. The match went back and forth across the mats with Hell-Fire almost getting me with a rear naked choke and a neck hold.
One thing I was able to do well was avoid Hell-Fire getting a school girl pin on me. Each time one of her knees was planted on one of my arms, I was retrieving my arm within a few seconds much to her frustration. For Hell-Fire?s part, she was excellent when pinned down, I mean I could not keep her down at all, I could not even start a count because she was positioning herself to escape from the outset and clearly knew what she had to do to wriggle free.
At the half way point, with the match still scoreless, we took a break for water. We locked up again and I noticed that Hell-/fire?s strength was not fading at all as the match continued. We were both breathing heavily with effort and getting a great workout, but I was not noticing her grip weakening at all. I had a clear chance to get a shoulder move on her, a move that I scored with two dayes earlier. However, Hell-Fire rolled into the angle I was trying to make and was soon connecting her two hands to keep her arms to the front. Hell-Fire had a chance for an arm bar but I spotted it early and so my arm was only through her legs up to half way up the fore arm. I was able to turn the other way, and so the arm bar was always going to be ineffective and Hell-Fire had to give it up.
The only point came about 10 minutes from the end when Hell-Fire managed to get on top of me. She was facing away from me as I lay on my front and she was able to grab my right leg, bending it at the knee and then pulling the leg upwards as my body was pressed to the ground by her sitting on my back. We looked this move up later; it was a half Boston crab and I had to submit because I was feeling it on the side of my hip (the iliotibial tract was being stretched) and my leg was beyond the point where I could have forced it back down again.
We took a break for water and then locked up for the final 10 minutes. This period was even with neither of us getting in a good position to force a pin or submission. There were plenty of half guard defences being applied by both of us and plenty of mutual neck holds. As the buzzer went to end the match, Hell-Fire smiled and lay back on the mats exhausted after making such a big effort. I helped her to her feet and we gave each other a hug. We had a good chat about session wrestling in general, training, holiday plans and so on. I made the short trip home in time for lunch, a good start to the weekend.
Thanks Hell-Fire for a brilliant match, we've both improved, I really enjoyed the contest xx
