1966, Ken Joyce and all That

Fair enough, dear Hack.

Maybe flat-footed Colbeck (wasn't he just!) decided to retire, And then reversed his decision.

Now we are in 1963. Johnny Peters' Continentale Promotions was another that worked in association with Dale Martin. Here they too have Ken as European champion.

Anglo Italian...

"Alan Colbeck's gig was being the European Welterweight Champion from about 1950 until pretty much for ever. Joyce's arrival couldn't dent that."

Which takes us full circle to why were Joint advertising him as champion in 1966?

I can find matchups between the two in the 1954-57 timeframe.

Here is one from June 1957 in Edinburgh:

Alan Colbeck's gig was being the European Welterweight Champion from about 1950 until pretty much for ever. Joyce's arrival couldn't dent that.

I wonder what match-ups the pair had if ever for titles?

Joyce was billed as European welterweight champion from 1958 to 1961 while working for the independents. I don't recall Joint recognising him as champion.

Ken Joyce was being called a former European Welterweight Champion by Kent Walton in the 1980s when he wrestled and refereed (including Danny Collins's win over Jorg Chenok for that self-same title in 1985.)

Now, now, Hack. Feeding words into my mouth....more tripe and onions. No, business went on as normal. It was a bill put together at the time with the available talent. The questions are:

- when indeed was the time it was put together?

- which talent was available at that time?

Scouring that bill further we see Kent Walton present at a Paul Lincoln show. What on earth was going on there? He didn't even like the wrestling. To attend a show when not commentating! There's something in that - but what?

January 1966 remains a fascinating month. Maybe all the apparent changes afoot were what swayed Bartelli to think that an unmasked future would be beneficial and so he started planning that for six weeks later.

The observation by Anglo Italian that the merger must have been planned long before 1st January 1966 is obviously true, and there may well be clues in the bills. But the idea that this billing as champion was connected with the merger is off the mark because Joyce's independent days had ended in 1962 (apart from their own Joint associated Devereux shows) and he had been working for Dale Martin since then, even making a few tv appearances in 1965.

Here's KEN JOYCE Defending his EUROPEAN WELTERWEIGHT Title against WORLD

LIGHTWEIGHT Champion GEORGE KIDD at The MAJESTIC BALLROOM in

FINSBURY PARK LONDON On MONDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER 1961!

KEN has Kindly Signed My Original Programme!!

MAIN MASK

Ken Joyce received European welterweight champion billing regularly at this time.

I thought perhaps he and Colbeck were to meet at some point but I haven't done any research into whether this took place or not.

Just trying to answer my own question, I have been rummaging for (early) January 1966 Dale Martin bills, based mostly on the many hundreds of results dear Ray sent me. Glad to keep his research alive here.

I have found:

TOTTENHAM 13/1;Murphy kod Grant;Zimba 1-1 Trood;Fury bt Lynch-DISQ;Bob/Chris Anthony v Cortez Bros.

Dale Martin had been quick to promote The Amazing Anthonys. Had they planned and publicized this in 1965?

I kind of disregard these weekly CROYDON bills:

4/1;Vachon v Cox;Zaranoff v Maivia;Kwango v Logan;Barnes v J.Cortez;C.Fisher v Mendoza

11/1;Tibor kod Garfield;Kirkwood bt Logan-DISQ;Regan bt Cornelius;Trevors bt Passalaris

Fortuna bt T.Skarlo

18/1;Maxine 1-1 J.Williams;Viedor bt Bridges;Thomson bt Corne;Lynch kod Larsen;Outlaw kod Capello

25/1;N'Boa the Snakeman kod Cassio;Hayes bt Bruno;Czeslaw bt Morgan

A.Fisher bt Menard;C.Fisher kod Torontos

The Cortezes had "gone over", to use a Hackism, in 1965, I believe, so of no relevance. Kirkwood and Bridges start to appear, but their bills would only have been publicized after 4th January.

So I need to find monthly venues with early January 1966 bills.

Ron has of course shared thousands of bills; but even looking through his I am struggling. I find an Iggy Borg creeping in in Coventry:

But otherwise, I am getting the feeling that Dale Martin by and large pulled up stumps in January 1966, certainly the first fortnight. This would have left a lot of Paul Lincoln wrestlers largely unemployed for much of the month.

A good example would be The Wild Man of Borneo. He could hardly be slipped unnoticeably into a preliminary welterweight bout; or as a sub. I wonder what was his earliest 1966 appearance on a Joint Promotions bill?

I see it differently.

Lincoln had "merged" with Dale Martin 52 days earlier.

This bill would have been put together in 1965 with maybe a couple of gaps left to fill. The Main Event, part of a championship cycle, would have been first bout pencilled in. A few days later and with the merger set, the promoter took the opportunity of weaving in old friend newbies Kumali, Yearsley and Garfield.

This does throw up a further question. We all talk about the date 1st January 1966 as if it almost merited AD after it. (Annus Dalus?)

But the "merger" must have been planned well before. I wonder when?

And I wonder if Lincoln bills of November and December 1965 can give us any clues that they were preparing for merger?

I imagine that 24th January Adelphi bill was publicised in 1965 with Thomson and Czeslaw on it. Were there bills early in January already with a mix of wrestlers? Such bills would have had to have been put together in November 1965, well before 1.1.66. And would have raised eyebrows amongst knowing 1965 fans.

Just piecing together history ....

Nearly all of the wrestlers were border line Joint workers. Certainly a few years before they were not. Can we trust Ken Walton was "Kent"

Looks like a Paul Lincoln effort to me confirmed by the previous months show.

I don't know the date to hand , but Lincoln had merged with Joint , maybe a bit earlier.