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In words that will forever travel through time an important martyr in British-American relations expressed before his death, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”.
Nathan Hale is one of the greatest American heroes and martyrs in history.
During the battle of Long Island, Mr. Hale volunteered to go behind the British lines, and report back on the movements of the British troops, their tactics and other valuable information. Unfortunately for Mr. Hale, he was caught and executed. This gave him the distinction of being the first-ever American spy to be executed.
Today, there are statues standing in his honor at Yale University, and at the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters educates www.toptenz.net.
Names are very powerful and can symbolize so much as is the case with a British female wrestler from London named Lucretia, still very young, but sadly retired.
We’ll talk about her name significance soon but life is about the present so let’s speak about Lucretia now.
I first saw Lucretia fighting with and against the self-named Goddesses of Fighting Style in Greece that showcased female grapplers like Artemis, Maia, blonde shapely feminine Isabella, Nadine, Kirsty, mentally tough Lia Labowe, Zahra, Canadian super star Mutiny, Kata, Sybil Starr, Khati and others. Often the sun was shining, the wind gently blowing by crashing waves and I think many female wrestling fans would agree, that showcase was one of the most unique female wrestling events ever produced.
While Greece was certainly a break out party for our statuesque British princess, Lucretia mostly plied her trade and made her name at Festelle.
She started at age 25 and her action packed career ran from 2003-2006.
Some of her most memorable bouts inside the Festelle war room adorned with the famous dark Kelly Green mats were against one of my favorites Vixen (Festelle’s Vixen, A Wrestler Full Of Adventure), the unpredictable Silver, journey level Denisa, Kirsty and others. Festelle was famous for having female wrestlers of many nations compete against one another.
In her match against Sammie, Lucretia used the head lock to perfection.
Her matches can still be purchased at Festelle and here are a few descriptions.
“Our own Lucretia took on Michelle next and gave the bigger woman a real run for her money. From the moment they squared up we knew that it was going to be a close-run battle and so it was! Tall, dark Brazilian Michelle is indeed a young woman of Amazonian physique.”
They continue and express something that was probably little known about our sexy grappler.
“Lucretia’s a very pretty brunette from London, England where she’s a part-time trapeze artist, something that’s obviously given her lots of strength and flexibility. When wrestling Lucretia likes to control opponents with headlocks and scissors and at her first Topstars tournament she used a size and strength advantage to win 2 matches while losing only once and tieing another. Lucretia certainly discovered that her bodyscissors could be used to torture opponents and as the tournament went on her scissors became more and more feared.
It´s always a pleasure to revisit the career of Lucretia, for many years one of Festelle´s most popular girls, and a woman that mixed dark glamour with exceptional wrestling skill.”
So what’s in a name? Many things. In the case of Lucretia there is a powerful story tied to her name that speaks to and addresses a current and age old problem.
The great information source Wikipedia explains, “Lucretia is a semi-legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic. According to the story, told mainly by two turn-of-the-millennium historians, the Roman Livy and the Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus (who lived in Rome at the time of the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus), her rape by the Etruscan king’s son and consequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the monarchy and established the Roman Republic.
The incident kindled the flames of dissatisfaction over the tyrannical methods of the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. As a result, the prominent families instituted a republic, drove the extensive Tarquin family from Rome, and successfully defended the republic against attempted Etruscan and Latin intervention. The rape has been a major theme in European art and literature.”
The respected education source www.britannica.com takes an old story and lectures a different spin on it with the essentials remaining the same. “Lucretia, legendary heroine of ancient Rome. According to tradition, she was the beautiful and virtuous wife of the nobleman Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Her tragedy began when she was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the tyrannical Etruscan king of Rome. After exacting an oath of vengeance against the Tarquins from her father and her husband, she stabbed herself to death. Lucius Junius Brutus then led the enraged populace in a rebellion that drove the Tarquins from Rome.
The event (traditionally dated 509 bce) marks the foundation of the Roman Republic. The story is first found in the work of the earliest Roman historian, Fabius Pictor (late 3rd century bce). Its classic form is Livy’s version (late 1st century BCE). Lucretia’s story is also recounted in Shakespeare’s narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece.”
We stated it was a time worn problem for a reason. What is the situation with rape in England today, a former Roman outpost?
On May 25, 2012 the internationally respected news source www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london reported “There has been a 53% rise in recorded rape in London over the last four years.
In the financial year 2008-2009, there were 2,177 reports of rape to the Metropolitan Police.
But by 2011-2012, that had jumped to 3,334 cases. Some 667 prosecutions have been completed, 369 of which were successful. A Metropolitan Police spokesman claimed the rise was due to victims feeling more confident about coming forward.
He said: “We believe this rise in recorded crimes is partly due to an increase in victims coming forward to report rape and sexual assaults.”
We hope that reporting truly is the main reason for the increase. Something that is horribly life altering as rape should always be a focus of serious global attention.
Here are two of many organizations in Great Britain trying to make a difference.
The site rapecrisis.org.uk, a national charity and the umbrella body for a network of independent member Rape Crisis organizations reveals, “In January 2013, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Home Office released its first ever joint Official Statistics bulletin on sexual violence, entitled An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales.”
It reported that:
- Approximately 85,000 women are raped on average in England and Wales every year
- Over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted each year
1 in 5 women (aged 16 – 59) has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.
Another group www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk explains “The End Violence Against Women Coalition is a unique coalition of organisations and individuals campaigning to end all forms of violence against women.
We continue to lobby all levels of government in the UK, and we challenge the wider cultural attitudes that tolerate and condone violence against women.”
Female Competition International applauds these and other group’s efforts in their tireless and often thankless task of addressing this problem as old as man and no less important today.
There is so much to our female wrestler Lucretia.
Her name was just the starting place and clearly symbolic. For fans like me, it represented beauty, grace, a modest spirit packaged in a feminine shapely work of art. In her competitions the name represented intensity, excitement, artistic passion and skillful beauty.
Lucretia is a name that will always be remembered in general and revered in women’s wrestling in particular.
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Sources: www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk, brainyquote.com, www.britannica.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, rapecrisis.org.uk, www.bbc.com, FCI Elite Competitor, www.festelle.eu, https://femcompetitor.com, www.toptenz.net, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.
