This is a bit of an obscure one, and more relevant to boxing than wrestling. However, I know we have a few folks here familiar with Manchester and its wrestling connections, so I wondered if anyone remembered the Lonsdale Gymnasium Club that was in Smithfield Market.
If you look at the photos in this newspaper advertisement they had a collection of old wrestling posters, independent ones too. Seems like it may have been a short-lived enterprise.
I think the clue is here. THey had posters up to 1970
Barry Calderwood was a Midlands area champion. His last bout was 1971. This may help with dates.
Do we have a date for the Lonsdale Gym posters?
My guess would be mid-70's, based on the fact that these were (arguably) Joe Bugner's peak years, when he would have been quite a celebrity.
Does anyone recognise the blonde lady in the first poster?, the man next to her is holding a microphone to her, so she could be a 70's singer or TV star? That might help us to date this.
I would almost have expected this Ost as we know that Alf Robinson , (Billy's) uncle worked there and I think many of the family.
This is a picture of him displaying what I think was his belt. After a days work if they had any energy left it would have been easy to do a bit of boxing in such a big market.