Gerry Hoggarth , an insight

An interesting find Ron. Presumably it's the Burton in Cumbria. 1962 must be near the end for Gerry.

Look at the promoters. Triple Promotions. Queried many times before. Promoters in Morecambe, possibly Kirkland. Phil Kenyon suggested a Harry Strickland (Jock Campbell) link but we got nowhere. Strickland promoted with Lee Scott, but Lee said he'd never heard of Triple. One to get to the bottom of.

Goliath. Another mystery, but he's cropped up on Triple bills previously.

A rare appearance by C&W wrestler Tony Hayhurst. Tried lpro and didn't like it.

The Toff. Phil Kenyon told us it was Ian St John. So no surprise there.

Tommy Sands. No idea but he's cropped up around this area previously and on Triple.

Talk about Nooks and Crannies , I have another one for the Gerry Hoggarth collection here.

Bet this place did not do many shows. Very low capacity , probably only 150 or so.

Phil Kenyon

Well I know nothing Phil, but I've never let ignorance get in the way.

You know as much as I do that in the 1960s wrestling was intertwined into northern/working class culture. It seems more than likely that wrestling from places like Carnforth Carnival would have been filmed and shown in working mens clubs. Wrestling was big business, largely thanks to television. There was no way that clubs could afford to show those Joint Promotion televised wrestlers. Anyway, we both know that in Lancashire there were more independent shows with just as good wrestlers. Filming of those was cheap and without additional costs.

Hi Ron,

Thanks again much appreciated.

Cheers

Hi Ron,

Reaing with interest the bills from the Carnforth Carnival.

This all rings a bell for me, in particular the 1967 bill with Vince Lawson vs, Don Plummer and the other guys.

I mentioned in another forum the fact that Bob Bannister ran shows, which I thought were for a Coal Miners Carnival, In 1963-4 I was up against my tutor Don Plummer. In retrospect I'm now convinced that It must have been the Carnforth Carnival.

The twist on the miners, was that we were told the boughts were being filmed and that they were going to be shown at Coal Miners homes/clubs in the North.

Any thought on this subject Ron would be very much appreciated.

Yet another find about the life of Gerry.

AND

Ron does a tremendous job at bringing us Gerry bills when he finds them. So he may well have shared this before, sorry Ron if that's the case

I think the Promoters put Gerry over as a hard man who did not lose easily. Being a champion of sorts , they did not want to waste his pedigree. Hence he seems to have been on his way to a decent record . Two great examples working with Pye and the Ghoul , Gerry was not fed as Fodder to them.

Gerry was certainly a much more well known name at the time than any of us imagined when William uncovered him,

Another example of Gerry working with the very best.

Couple of new ones here at Hull in 1952. No write ups except Gerry lost the StClair Gregory match.

Very many thanks for the latest bill Ron. Although Gerry was a highly accomplished Cumberland & Westmorland style wrestler, I don’t think he was ever World Champion of that sport. Promotor’s license maybe!

Gerry told me he tried many times to introduce Bob Sherry to the sport, believing it would be just his thing.

Gerry was a much more important figure than any of us could have imagined when we started our journey of discovery all those years ago. Other than being a name on Ray Plunkett's list he had been forgotten.

Found another one today and this time Gerry is a "World Champion"

Seeing as bills are fairly rare , I like to keep em coming.

I’d agree with you entirely on this Ron. I recall Gerry commenting with disdain on the Ghoul’s tactics even though they got on well and occasionally travelled to venues together. (In later years he was disgusted with the belly bouncing tactics of Big Daddy and remarked that he wouldn’t have got away with these had he been in the ring with him!). Gerry was a technical purist and had little time for gimmicks, always acknowledging Ernest Baldwin as the finest heavyweight of his generation.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, it’s such a pity Gerry’s long term memory was failing by the time I met up with him, but his eyes didn’t half light up when I used to take round to him the bills you kindly published on the site. However, I may be mistaken but sometimes got the impression that he wasn’t telling me quite all he knew, thereby sticking strictly to the code prevailing amongst his retired brethren from that era!

Hello everyone, I’ve been missing from posting in the Forum for quite some time following, amongst other things, technical problems with my PC. I also had a new knee fitted in April and would recommend this operation to anyone suffering arthritic pain in the limb. Mr Joe Sudhakar FRCS did a wonderful job on me at The Woodlands Hospital, Darlington.

Anyway, I hope my dear friends on the site are all keeping well and thanks again Ron for this posting and the others featuring Gerry Hoggarth which have appeared since I last posted on the Forum.

God Bless,

William (Beancounter)

Very many thanks Ron. I’d have loved to have shown Gerry this!

What a splendid find Ron. Thanks for that. Gerry outghouled Ghoulie.