BRADFORD wrestler Brett Hawthorn is demanding a re-match after his chances of appearing in next year's Commonwealth Games in Australia appear to have been scuppered by a controversial defeat.

The 26-year-old, who competed for Wales in 2010 in Delhi but who has pinned his colours to England's mast this time, was defeated by Charlie Bowling in a 65kg British Open contest in Nottingham, which was a final qualifier for Gold Coast.

However, Brett's dad Jimmy, himself a notable former competitor and chairman of Bradford Amateur Wrestling Club, is taking legal steps to force a rematch, even calling the officials' decision "the worst I have come across in 40 years' involvement with wrestling".

Hawthorn, whose son went to Campbellsville University in Kentucky from 2010-12 to progress in the sport, said: "Brett came out of retirement seven months ago and won the Derbyshire Open and was second in the British Closed.

"Charlie, who is from Aspull, near Wigan, was pinned by Brett, who was later disqualified.

"Brett had one arm around Charlie's neck, which you are allowed to do, and then later Brett did a cross-face for which Charlie was awarded two points, but there was only the slightest contact with his head."

Hawthorn, who feels that his son won the match "fair and square", initially e-mailed British Wrestling membership secretary Trevor Hoskins, who was in charge of the championships.

His response was: "A panel of myself (competitions director), Richard Phillips (official in charge), Anatolii Kharytoniuk (England coach) and Eric Ciake (England performance and talent lead) have reviewed the videos.

"In our opinion, there were human misjudgements during the match.

"This was regrettable but unfortunately happens in the sport of wrestling.

"We will discuss this with the officials concerned and would hope to reduce the likelihood of these incidents in the future.

"Apologies for the upset caused to Brett and yourself."

Hawthorn senior replied: "I appreciate your intervention and Brett is very glad to know that he has been vindicated.

"Having said that, we would still would like a copy of the video to consider with our legal representatives while we explore all available options.

"Once we have done this I will reply more fully.

"In the meantime I thank you for your prompt and professional attention."

Having failed to receive a dvd of the fight as requested, Hawthorn senior followed up with an e-mail to Jem Lawson (chairman of British Wrestling) expressing his concerns.

The message stated: "As you are aware we are extremely concerned about the way Brett's semi- final against Charlie Bowling was refereed.

"We acknowledge and appreciate that you have accepted that major mistakes were made by referee Ian Wiggett, all of them against Brett.

"We entirely accept that human error can occur and a referee can make mistakes, but what we do not understand is how the two match officials (match chairman and judge) apparently made the same errors as the referee.

"We fail to see how the two match officials could have agreed with him. It defies logic.

"This is not acceptable in any match, let alone a British Championship semi-final and, more importantly, a Commonwealth Games qualifier.

"Brett has now missed out on qualification for the Commonwealth Games.

"In situations such as this there is surely an increased responsibility on the match officials to get the decisions right."

The e-mail went on: "You have to appreciate that Brett has focused a lot of time and effort on performing to the best of his abilities at the British Championships, and that hard work has been completely undermined by the way the match was officiated."

In conclusion, Hawthorn asked for three actions to be taken: "Please supply a copy of the official dvd by return (which was originally requested on November 6).

"Please confirm it is agreed that there should be a re-match between Brett and Charlie, with the winner to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.

"Please confirm what steps are to be taken to improve the level of match officiating to prevent this from happening again."

Lawson replied: "I had thought that your e-mail of November 6 had been answered in the response from Trevor Hoskins.

"Clearly this (the semi-final and its aftermath) is a most unfortunate situation, but there is a process to go through.

"I am already enquiring as to the correct way forward in technical matters of this nature and will appraise you of the results of such enquiries in a timely fashion."

All of this too-ing and fro-ing has unfortunately meant that the achievements of Brett's 37-year-old clubmate Richard Tuke, the British Closed champion from Burley-in-Wharfedale, have gone under the radar.

He reached the 125kg heavyweight final at Nottingham before losing to former British champion Mark Cocker (Bolton).

Californian Carlos Hernandez, also of Bradford Amateur Wrestling Club, was also competing but failed to make the semi-finals.