This week we are digging up a really old event. Here we see two sportsmen who seem to be battling it out on the turf. But who are they? What sport are they engaged in? When and where is this event taking place? There were more losers than winners at this event! We hope that these pictures will reveal, in a light-hearted way, a secret that has remained buried for over a decade. Trust Jaan to bring it out in the open again! Well, we are not quite ready to reveal the big secret yet. Use the form below and let us know what you know. * [btw this is the first in a 2-part serial on this infamous event. We will be showing more next week. Watch this space.]

These pics are from the 1994 Wakefield Mela held at Sandal Manga school held on 14th August 1994. The Mela was, in our opinion, a big success with plenty of activities for the Wakefield Asians, including music and sport. Unfortunately, it was rather spoilt at the end with the desi sports when the match officials failed to take control of the situation; we will be discussing that later. Neverthless, the mela was a big success. There was another mela in 1995 and in subsequent years but none matched the panache or the scale of this event. This mela, unlike some events we have had since, was an open event which the majority of Wakefield Asians attended. Sadly, later events, especially events in recent times, have been closed-door 'by invitation only' events for a select few, closing off access to the bulk of people. Anyway moving on to the photos....

No, the guy in the white shirt is no doctor and is not checking the other guy's pulse!
This was a 'bhan' or 'bhini' match between these young guys; sorry I do not know
their names because they were from out of town.

There is a commotion going on here after the guy in the white-shirt cried foul-play. The other 2 guys are the refrees
who turned down his appeal. What had happened was that in the first round the the white-shirt guy held the red-shirt
guy's arm who managed to get it released easily. Then they had to change around with the red-shirt guy holding the
other's arm.The white-shirt guy tried very hard but could not get his arm released thereby giving victory to the red-shirt
chap. The white-shirt guy appealed twice that he had managed to release his arm and the other guy had re-held it. Both
refrees turned down his appeals. To be fair to the refrees, it was rather difficult to see what happened within a space of few
seconds and they did not have the privilige of tv replays. Jaan can reveal after viewing the tv action replays that maybe the
white-shirt guy was right and he had been hard-done by. I suppose the refrees can only give decisions based on what they
can humanly see. Have a look at the following pics:

Credit goes to these 2 guys who ultimately accepted the
refrees' decision and walked off the ground like sportsmen.

Onlookers here include (from left to right): Nawaz, Late Haji Afsar,
Sikandar and Haji Sharif. The Children at the front are Sabtain, Husnain and Afy.