MICK MCMANUS versus ALAN COLBECK??

"...I would love to know what real life relationship Arthur/Eric/Alan and Billy/Mick had...."

It's interesting isn't it. We often hear of Mick McManus being out for himself, booking himself on shows where there would be bigger crowds, to claim credit, making sure he was dominant on TV, to keep his image intact, and yet here he is, even at his mid 1960's peak, splitting the result with Colbeck, and continuing to do so, up until their final TV encounter.

Did Mick insist on getting a victory on TV, just so he could say he had finally beaten Alan, or did Alan offer to put him over, as a favour to a pal? Was it Mick who pulled the strings to get Alan Colbeck one last headline TV bout?

All interesting stuff, and we will never know, I guess.

Hi Anglo, Colbeck & McManus met at Newcastle 3 times IN1965.

All the best.

Ian P.

Thanks so much, Saxonwolf.

Fascinating. McManus clearly starting to feel vulnerable in his fifties and needing the safety of his trusted co-workers. Four times in three years, fans would have remembered (not me, I was working). I bet Kent feigned complete memory loss of the preceding encounters and draws.

By 1974, Colbeck had probably signalled retirement was looming, so it no longer mattered.

We harp on about the McManus v Pallo feud, but Colbeck v McManus knocks spots of that one QUANTITY wise.

The quantity of it also tells us how awful it was quality-wise because, within the context of all these 500 to 1,000 bouts, there is not one important or memorable detail.

I would love to know what real life relationship Arthur/Eric/Alan and Billy/Mick had.

Even limiting it to the small screen, does anyone know how many times Colbeck and McManus wrestled each other on television?

Yes the promoters didn't like to retire belts, especially in the early days of Joint promotions. It took a few years.

very interesting subject, in the early 1950s, when there were still more than one British champion in all weight classes, Alan Colbeck was Mount Evans Champion and Belt Holder (JP) and Mick McManus was Dale Martin Champion and Arena Gold Belt Holder

This poster is fascinating as it has both bouts on that we are discussing here:

Cheers for that Mate, all good here thanks just totally fed up with lock down and all the crap that goes with it. Im passing the time learning piano and painting bad pictures. Hope alls good with you n yours.

Ive heard before about Barnes and Kellet going off script and the bout turning into a brawl. Did they REALLY go off script or was going off script how the script was played out?

And how many times can you use the word script in one paragraph?

Those who only saw our wrestling on tv never had the privilege of those fireworks live. Great memories, Main Mask.

By the way, I can't really remember much about any Colbeck v McManus bout.

I'd have loved to have gone to the Wryton Stadium.

Thanks Ron. But it's not a mere 200. I estimated the maths on the other thread. Do it again now.

A very modest twice a month over 26 years makes 624 match-ups. I would be inclined to guess it's well over a thousand. The bout was the Coronavirus of its day, no venue was safe from a series of bouts in this plague.

McManus v Colbeck would be less worrying if it were a good bout. Give me Logan v Kellett any day of the week. Nagasaki v Bartelli's in the hundreds, but surely a good spectacle each time (I never saw it).

Colbeck was just not suited to being the baby face to McManus. For a start he was about the same age, with drawn unsmiling features. McManus's routine worked best against some callow, lost youth, who he could bully, and who the crowd could feel sorry for. Even though everyone hated McManus, it was hard to give unfailing enthusiastic support to dour Colbeck.

This must just be another of the privileges of Mick McManus, he has chosen an opponent that suits him, not the crowd.

In spite of all these heady numbers I must confess to knowing absolutely zilch as to what kind of personal relationship Colbeck and McManus must have had. And it intrigues me.

I found 100 Kellett vs Logan bills without results, (compared to 77 McManus vs Colbeck) I haven't had time to look through the Logan/Kellett bouts we have results for.

Either way, these are two matchups that happened a lot.

Anglo , when it comes to Dale Martins you are the man for sure. You have a real good feel for it. I knew it was possible that two wrestlers could have had that may bouts and we have found many pairs that met often , but 200 raises the bar.

It truly was showbiz , no wonder no records were kept.

The problem is that Hastings fans didn't love McManus v Colbeck.

This is the scar I often mention on here. It still gives me the shivers. The bout was also very samey, they just took care to vary the result. But we still got mostly draws and dqs. You torment me by posting back my own handbills, which are hidden away here in a cupboard - I cannot bear to look at them.

Thanks to The Ost, we have some empirical data: the same person has found 200 McManus v Colbeck as opposed to 100 Logan v Kellett. These numbers are enough to cement McManus v Colbeck categorically in the top spot. Thanks again, The Ost.

Great piece of work Ost and it really does show us how wrestling works.

And that won't be all. Incredible.

Looking through Ray's files I could find 77 times they were billed but without results. Earliest was 1952, latest was 1974. I then found 52 bouts with McManus winning including at RAH. Latest one was 1975 on TV.

I could also find 33 bouts with Colbeck winning, latest was also 1975.

I could find 35 drawn bouts between the two.

Finally I could find two no contest bouts.

Thats makes a potential total of 199 bouts together. I didn't check my research to see if had any additional bouts or details of the ones Ray didn't have results for.

EDIT: I just found another one from 1950. So over 200 bouts is possible.

MM , I can find quite a few in my collection , but tend to agree that it was not a top pairing. The way I think it worked is that Mick probably had about thirty people he could trust and fought them all about 50 times at least. He may have fought Pallo as much as Colbeck and Capelli , Quesick others just as much although Pallo and Colbeck hung about longer.

A CITY HALL SHEFFIELD T.V. Encounter!!

MM