I STARTED A NOTORENT BAR FIGHT

[♔Chello]

I STARTED A NOTORENT BAR FIGHT

Here is an experience from my time as a conscript in the Norwegian Coast Guard in 1981:

I was among the crews of two identical vessels that were on shore leave in a major Norwegian port city in the north.
We met at a bar, and the two crews sat and scowled at each other while consuming beer.

We were fierce competitors, and this led to their leader asking me to come over to their table to try to make fun of me.
He placed his right arm on the table, and asked me to arm wrestle with him.

I accepted the challenge, and I immediately noticed that he was a pretty strong guy, who seemed sure to win.
At the same time, I knew that he had already lost, because he was going hard, without me having any trouble holding him back.

I let him push, and he became visibly red in the face, until he bet everything on one card and tried to slam my arm into the table.
Instead, I pushed his arm into the table slowly but effectively.

He got angry and claimed I had cheated, and insisted on doing it again.
He got his wish, but lost every time.

Finally, he grinned wickedly, and told me to try with my left arm - he HAD to win !
He didn't know that I'm mostly left-handed and an accordion player (never break your left against an accordion player !), and was now ABSOLUTELY sure to win.

He lost pretty brutally, because I was now fed up with his behavior, and decided to make short work of it.
He insisted on trying again several times, but lost worse and worse each time, because I starting to get angry that he wouldn't admit losing.

Finally, he gave up and recommended me in a threatening way to leave the place.
As I stood up, I saw one of his crew attacking one of my crew, and I instinctively reacted by doing a "Tarzan" hold on him, pushing him across the room until we ended up on top of some tables.
There he lay helpless and screaming without anyone intervening.

Fortunately, the bar had 2 military police as doormen, and they quickly came and removed the troublemaker.
They recommended that I leave the bar, which I did, while the others stayed behind.
Many hours later, the crew returned, bloody and bruised - one of them had to go to hospital and have his face stitched up, as someone had cut him serious with a knife.


Many years later, I heard someone in another town talking about the worst bar fight in the history of Harstad (the name of the town) - a fight that started because I won an arm wrestling match and neutralized the worst troublemaker of the other crew, which made them vengeful.