Nooks and Crannies.....Bexhill on Sea

De La Warr Pavilion is named after Earl De La Warr a prominent landowner

Spedeworth Promotions were primarily based in stock car racing.

Hi Ron

Your additions today have a certain Don Cockle headlining which has me imagining all sorts. The great Don Cockell was much loved in East Sussex through the sixties when having faced Rocky Marciano really meant something.

So I'm wondering:

• Deliberately misspelt to trick the public?

• Mistakenly misspelt and it really was the great man?

Boxers traditionally ended up broke so time-wise at least, 12 years after his last boxing match (lost to the Tongan Terror and wrestler, Kitione Lava), a genuine appearance is feasible.

Mind you, Don Cockell had made a princely sum from successfully suing the Daily Mail for libel after they had described him as flabby. I really can't imagine that he'd have been bothered but, since he's in a tag bout, maybe the not-flabby one did what Big Daddy did for more than a decade in top-of-the-bill tag bouts, ie very little. The draw of the spotlight.

Great to see the might of major East Sussex metropolises such as Uckfield and Lewes and Sidley facing up to international equivalents Canada, Germany and USA.

So they had Seaford, Lewes and Bexhill as venues....and maybe even Uckfield! Looks like the guys took it in turns to be the Blue Diamonds or Black Angels.

Those 1966 bills certainly overflowing with wrestlers not memorable enough to even forget. Answering Anglo Italian. The owners of Winshaw Promotions are, unsurprisingly, on the bills. It was owned by John and Rick Winter. Richard Winter also used the name Ricky Silver.

1966 at Bexhill featured Winshaw Promotions

I always find significant that even Dale Martin die-hards like Bob Kirkwood and Steve Viedor went over to the independants at the end of their careers. Life under Max Crabtree must have been grim, because the Pallos openly had problems.

I have a Pallo show poster also. My friend's band played at the venue last year, I was disappointed not to be able to attend with them:

It must be ten years since I last visited Bexhill. The De La Warr pavillion is a lovely building but ballymoss is right it does seem like an odd venue. When I was there it had an exhibition of Ladybird Books and Anthony Gormley statues on the roof. Bexhill was home to the first motor racing in this country.https://www.discoverbexhill.com/history/bexhill-motor-racing.php

But as Ron has shown there was absolutly nowhere that wrestling might not take place.

I can remember visiting Bexhill with my family around 1961 and seeing posters advertising wrestling at the De La Warr pavilion. I was unimpressed as none of the wrestlers on the bill were names I could recognise as up to that time I had only seen wrestling on television. So I presume it must have been an independent promotion. The Grade 1 building is happily still going strong being the most notable landmark in Bexhill for nearly 80 years but a surprising venue to stage wrestling. Still Ron's wonderful posters suggest there must have been a market which in those days was a place was mainly populated by OAP's. Fascinating.

I am learning a great deal, Ron; seeing Paul Lincoln so active in Bexhill in the heyday of attendance levels. Pallo clearly snapped up the De La Warr, probably in ignorance or denial of the luxury of knowledge we now share about the decline in attendances from 1963 onwards. Foreign holidays and the rise of Majorca probably influenced the wrestling potential of medium to small seaside resorts like Bexhill-on-Sea.

Nevertheless, we can now see that Pallo Promotions had a longer run in Bexhill than Paul Lincoln.

You asked for a poster. You've got me rolling 'em out again on the terracotta. This one is typical: looks great on paper, but certainly didn't happen as billed. Even Pallo himself was prone to not wrestling, slipping in JJ in his place after his name and dodgy knees had sold the tickets. He would attend but not wrestle.

Years ago we discussed "Which Wild Man of Borneo?" Certainly applies here, and the images of Zando Zabo clarify nothing.

A few additions.

A wonderful addition Anglo and I did think about that capacity of 1500. Does not look that big to me either nor do I think they could have attracted that many.

I even thought , Is it a legit Nook and Crannie , but if we never highlight them for any reason or have no Posters the I think they are. Was also aware that I should be finding a few in the South.

Oh yeah! I went to the De La Warr many times.

Located by the beach, it was a long narrow theatre sloping down to the stage. So it was stage wrestling of the type Paul Lincoln favoured and Dale Martin did not. So combining your bills with my memory we can confirm the De La Warr was never a Dale Martin venue. I am surprised to see 1500 as the capacity but then I just can't remember.

My memories mid-seventies were of a very active Jackie Pallo venue where he brought a wide range of tv wrestlers including Kincaid, Street, Kowalski, Borgs etc. And at a time when they had only recently been on tv, so very credible. As well as various Red Indians.

I remember Roy Bull Davis as a very involved referee.

The problem was the lack of atmosphere with the largely OAP audience. I also remember, I'm afraid, decimated bills varying greatly from the posters and with some wrestlers appearing twice. The last time I went, Jackie Pallo stood in the ring almost crying into the mike, telling us how difficult it was to make things work and ends meet; it was quite sad.

I googled to jog my memory but couldn't find much. However, these quotes about the De La Warr did make me smile: