In the week of the passing of one of my favourite wrestlers, Denbighshire's Al "Buster" Martin, a comment I made on here has been playing on my mind: how he apologised to me for signing his name, as it were, wrongly.
I know that we have Members who like to see before believing, so the Ides of March have allowed the stars to align and for the first time for a while, in Buster's honour, I have delved into my memorabilia collection to root out the autograph in question. From memory I only ever got his autograph once, so it was a Naylor in a Haystacks job.
Not only have the stars aligned but so have the settings on my new scanner, and I am thrilled to have been able to find the missing autograph and to be able to share it with Members now!
Not only that, I find one of my Royal Albert Hall programmes with a near nap hand of autographs. What happy memories collecting all these. Only one fiend foiled me...look!
I am delighted to be able to share this with you all. Just 18 months later, these magnificent 16-page glossy Royal Albert Hall programmes would be reduced by the power-that-was to four superficial pages on coarse, cheap paper with grainy print and chaotic fonts. I hope you have as much pleasure seeing these for the first time as I have in rediscovering them and remembering the Chase.
Oh, Crewe is in the South now, is it? You really do align with Donald Trump in redrawing world gegraphy.
No more needs saying in these recent threads about what has been motivating you, Hack, and clouding your hitherto excellent clarity that has informed so much of Wrestling Heritage with sparkling wisdom and good cheer. You have clearly been Trumped.
I think in your case you could well blame "Oh Mr Porter ..........." given your final destination.
I'm glad we have established this and can move on.
And I agree with you wholeheartedy that we want more people to share their insights without fear of being pounced on if they happen to come from South of Crewe. Given that Crewe and Wrexham are close neighbours - maybe Buster and The Count went by tandem to Kensngton - should we now classify Buster Martin as a Southerner, too?
This will leave me in peace to work on my new project, inspired by a Dutch TV creation, and entitled "The Banished." I'll list all those title-hoggers that McMagnanimous cleared out in his mid-sixties purge and MATSGA campaign. It might be interesting once done to see if any geographical factors link The Banished...
Quite right Anglo Italian. Bartelli was not prosaic. Southern (Crewe), yes. Prosaic no.
Apart from Main Mask surprisingly no other memories. Is there anyone else out there?
You're at it again, Hack.
"...........shine rather more when alongside the more prosaic Dale Martin stable."
Have you seen Buster's opponent above? Having tip-toed along the paving stones of The Count's garden your good self, are you seriously suggesting that Bartelli was prosaically Southern?
I'm happy to read that Anglo Italian agrees with me that there was nothing wrong with Jack Martin, my intention was never to be dismissive. Clearly he was one of those northern wrestlers who did tend to shine rather more when alongside the more prosaic Dale Martin stable. It's too easy to overlook how fortunate we were in the north to enjoy such a good selection of heavier men, Jack being one of them. Jack learned the trade in independent rings, with Joint Promotions benefiting, as Anglo says with the lure of TV exposure. Too often Dale Martin would bring in outsiders to the benefit of their own "good looking boys" but Jack had the ability to overcome their prejudice.
There may have been huge stocks of the Pictorial History to shift as it didn't have the same exposure as the other two that were both backed by Dale Martin. My view is that the Pictorial History was by far the better of the three.
But we get off topic, so rest in peace, Jack.
I don't know if you do it deliberately, Hack, but the inaccuracy of your sweeping generalisations always manages to tease out a clarification from me.
I had stated that Buster was one of my favourites so I cannot let your haughty dismissiveness pass, especially when he is not yet cold in his grave. And don't you go claiming him as an independant: he wrestled extensively in the South, and on tv. Not sure how active he was in the north. I mean, the Albert Hall...
His names were apt. A roughouse brawler, seemingly unaware of the rules or, at least, disdainful of their relevance. Shaking his head, wide-eyed, pleading ignorance to the referee, whilst maintaining his illegal hold. Every bout a bust-up. There was something of a Norman Collier hen about him with his unkempt hair and salivating lower lip. This was a marvellously creative and carefully sculpted look, perfect to antagonise righteous Dale Martin ringsiders protective of their "good-looking boys."
Regarding those boooks, I do remember clearly that at that time I was rather cynical and just imagined they had huge stocks on their hands that they couldn't shift.
The RAH programme was expensive; the boooks were expensive. Don't go applying 2025 values to those prices. You could get into regular shows for 40 or 50 np at the time so the boooks represented three or four or five admissions.
Apart from these considerations, Hack, I agree with you wholeheartedly.
There was nothing wrong with Jack Martin, but there was nothing to make him stand out. I don't recall seeing him on the independents but imagine he would have been one of those to benefit from working with some of the indies more weird and wonderful who could provoke him into displaying his more tearaway side.
The monthly listing of Dale Martin promotions shows how much things had deteriorated by 1973.
The Pictorial History of Wrestling was a bargain compared to the other two books.
I don't remember how much we were paying in the north for our poor quality four page programmes in 1973 but the RAH programme looks good value.
I Remember seeing him Live 2 or 3 Times!-I Recall he was 'Stocky' and 'Beefy'!-
And didn't Particularly 'Sell' Opponent's Moves to 'Willingly'!!
MAIN MASK
What a splendid collection Anglo Italian, thanks for sharing. You've always said it was all about the hunt, and that was good hunting. I'm thinking you couldn't have got them all on that same night, or did you bag one on the way to the ring and one on the way back. I can just hear the talk in the dressing room about that lad with the pen, and I'll bet you two bob I can avoid him. Great work Anglo. Your finest hour!
The IQ test questions didn't make the cut and now I see the answers! So I can leave you all to write the questions.