I love finding what I call nooks and crannies. Right down the bottom end of the county of Lincoln we have Spalding. My weight training Mentor went to live there , he has passed now , said it was very quiet and flat , myself , never been to Lincoln.
Your looking down the street at the corn exchange , I think built in the 1850's and I suspect a capacity of low in the hundreds.
I believe wrestling peaked in the early 1960's with the Pallo/McManus feud , Dr Death and two Rivers , Starr and Gordienko etc. So many visitors then and it's position on TV. As early as the 1920's the Exchange had hosted boxing and I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone had a go at promoting wrestling. Don't know if Joint ever did but what looks like Jack Taylor to me brought some refreshing faces to Spalding and the fact that he managed a few years , think he must have done the game proud.
Hack , correct me if these are not Jack Taylor.
Enjoy a couple of bills from 1961
Nice to get these bills to sit alongside my bills for Lincoln and Grantham and a few other places. Over the years I have seen bills where the advert might cover one week and also double up with next weeks bill included. Not so sure if I have ever seen a promoter's advert where he shows two shows in different towns on the same template. For me , i think it might be a first. Enjoy these and I have more to show you soon.
Pat Favarque mentioned earlier looked like a Jack Taylor wrestler. I wonder if he was Pete Lapaque?
Once Wryton got a foothold in Spalding in te mid 1960's they saw the decade out. Regular venue The Savoy.
Well this is our Chief White Cloud
Almost certainly this would not be a fella in Langham on Bank Holiday Monday. I think we can safely say no Native North Americans were harmed in this wrestling match.
Who was Chief White Cloud please?
Here's the poster to accompany one of Ron's adverts posted on 13th October. It confirms this was a Jack Taylor programme. I came across it when looking for something to post on the Poster for Newsletter 7th November thread. As I noted it is interesting as an early example of Taylor using the Wrestling Federation of Great Britain banner. The year is 1962.
To finish with a couple more venues in Spalding in later years.
I wasn't even sure Rocky Wall worked in 1975 although this was early in the year.
And again some more venues in the area not mentioned , but again much later.
Thanks Hack and for me in later years at Bourne I have not much idea who promoted this variation of shows, I am Guessing Clark had a finger in the pie on some of them.
Bourne even scheduled for Tv in 1980.
Lansbury Club Starr Promotions was Bill Clark and Les Lunn. The last one almost certainly Taylor.
As the years went by the newspaper advertising suggests that with Wryton using Spalding and Lincoln dabbling in Stamford , Jack Taylor put a big effort into Bourne Corn Exchange. 1966 is a great year to start looking at the lady wrestlers who were the pioneers. They featured on most of Taylors bills.
Right click to open a new image that can be magnified.
Promoting seemed to be becoming a free for all. A new venue was found in Stamford
Seemingly a skating Rink , converted to Cinema and then 1960's Bingo Hall
No sign of Jack Taylor on these. Any help appreciated.
Just for good measure I would have loved to have spectated at this 1967 show on the left. This one at the Corn Exchange and a Taylor show almost certainly.
Nawamba had a short career , talked about recently.
A fake Dr Death and feel sure that Romero was Kendo's jobbing White Angel in 1974 or so.
But Shirley and Cowboy Jack could have been good.
The area of Spalding , Bourne and Stamford on the border of Rutland and also Oakham in Rutland was proving to be profitable for Wrestling and Paul Lincoln moved into the area before Wryton (1964) by capturing Stamford in 1963.
Left , Stamford Central Cinema.
When I was a boy, Urmston, where I lived , had three Cinema's , but by 1960 two of the had been closed, One became a warehouse for Bulbs (garden) the other knocked down. Two cinema's in Bolton converted to wrestling stadiums , several in Salford and one I often talk about is Cornbrook. What was it with the cinema struggling. I think it had to be TV.
The crowds must have been good . Paul Lincoln completed a year there. Marino and Death were in their pomp.
Jack Taylor continued to promote the area through the 1960's , but with fingers in the pie at Bourne , Stamford and Spalding , no one man could have it all.
Dale Martins promoted at Northampton , Corby , Peterborough and Coventry and that seems to have been
the northern limit. They even did Norwich and Kings Lynn. Could they be favourites or should we consider Ted Beresford who was at Grantham.
With a southern Boundary of Birmingham already , it turned out that it was Wryton who came into Spalding , and not the Corn Exchange , much too small . The Savoy Cinema or Theatre held 1500 with 1000 downstairs and a circle of 500 above.
Enjoy a few more and a tip to Ost , I don't think these made the Plunkett Index.
And a 1964 Kendo Nagasaki working nice and safe with Jim Hussey.
These are remarkably good bills for a village show.
Back on this part of Lincoln again , north of Spalding is the Village of Heckington.
Regular , in that once a year they did an outdoor show.
What the Heck , I have just noticed the 1973 show below , one Paul Mitchell on with Les Kellett.
Hope Paul (Bkendo1) is reading the thread because I would love an insight as to who had a finger in this pie. Did Paul go down with the Royals. Les went back next year and Mick McMichael did a couple. A good mix of different workers from all over.
Going back to Ron's earlier comment about Manne Hermann. I doubt if this was Steve Veidor as Steve was a heavyweight by 1962. I admit a mere weight difference of a few stones wouldn't worry Jack Taylor. But I think Manne Hermann was more likely Pete Herman from Barnsley. The January 1962 bill does include Butcher Goodman and Leon Arras from the same gym, though the January April bill doesn't have any Barnsley lads.
Moving on to 1993. Seeing Barry Douglas against Ray Robinson at Holbeach Community Centre seems so sad. Sorry Holbeach, I'm sure you're a lovely place, but these were the great wrestlers of our time. Their name on a Community Centre bill is as sad as the closed down BHS and Debenhams shops in our High Streets.
For me the 1970's went into the mists of time , Belle Vue and Bolton closing in 82, I think and TV UK wrestling going missing in 1988 , for a long time it seems that this was it , but I noticed a few bills in nearby Holbeach , and for younger Heritager's than myself the names may well be quite familiar. So there we have it , wrestling shrunk , but it kept going and even I remember some of these.
Tony Ancell was a Jack Taylor trainee,
I'm having a good laugh at the Hal Strickland v. Lee Scott bout. Hal coming from "England" and Lee coming from "Canada", both of course were from Fleetwood.
The promoters, in this case Jack Taylor were always very creative in their billings.
Cheers
2nd half of 1963 here with Jack Taylor on many of his own shows. Maxine below.
Ancell above son of Norman the Butcher.
Harry Bennett busy on all these promotions.
Report of the Spalding show on 11th April. Not a good night for the Vicar. Pat Favarque has the ring of Jack Taylor.
Adnan Al-Kassie was a very good legit wrestler,he excelled both as a villain "Sheik " and as a good guy "Billy White Wolf".Can't fault you Jazzman
I was a huge fan of Adnan Al-Kassie , pictured in an earlier incarnation as Billy White Wolf, as I have posted previously (leading to quite a nasty exchange which kept me off the site for just over a year but that is all in the past). I recall that Spalding had a huge festival of flowers each year with a street parade featuring floats displaying tableaus featuring literary and historical characters all created from locally-grown flowers. Bill Clarke did quite a few shows for me in the seventies. He built up quite a little circuit of shows around Lincolnshire and I'm pretty sure he mentioned Spalding as one of his acquisitions.
With Jack Taylor and his younger Brother Ray (billed always as Young Raymond) on so many of the bills, I would definitely say it was Jack who promoted the shows in Spalding.
Cheers
Enjoy the first half of 1963 , once a month shows.
Nawamba cropped up a while back
Dwight J Ingleburgh must have been one of the greatest Indy Wrestlers. Toured a lot of the world I believe but never worked for Joint. A formidable customer.
Kit Palmer Jerusalem....no ideas.
Pat Favarque....new one on me.
Jack Taylor doing March , April ,May.
Pedro was a super treat.
Great stuff Ron, and Hack for the insight too.
I have just one handbill from Spalding, which I acquired from Tom Burke. It is from 1970:
Yes, Benniston is in the A-Z.
Not in there are the Hungarians Georgy Cselko and Imre Csak. These too were Taylor lads. Genuine Hungarians came over in 1956 and both settled in Leicester. Their main interest was body building and were only in wrestling for a few years. According to his obituary in The Stage the first opponent of Pat Roach was Georgy Cselko. Cselko was even bestowed with a European Heavyweight title so that he could drop it to local boy Vince Apollo in 1967. Cselko disappeared afterwards. Csak I can find for an even shorter time, no later than 1965, the year he married.
Four more Spaldings from 1962 , Manny Herman catching my eye. That has to be Steve Veidor isn't it. I even had to check Al Benniston was in the A-Z
Fascinating Ron. You certainly know how to get me excited with these 1960s opposition adverts. Spalding especially as I was intrigued with the place around 1970 when Ringsport had reports of the shows. Promoters at that time were, I think, Starr Promotions and this is backed up by Martin Campbell in the Golden Years of Wisbech and Golden Days For Fenland Martin also tells of Wryton taking over, which I wasn't aware of at the time.
Yes Ron, I'd agree that the Spalding shows look like Jack Taylor. The usual suspects are there - Jack, Raymond, O'Reilly, Milla, Rose, Csak, Charles. Yes, surely must be Taylor.
Bourne too looks like Taylor, "The man's sport that ladies loved" was a slogan he used and again some Taylor regulars. But we've also got the Crabtree's on here, and Martin Campbell has told us of Crabtree and Taylor co-operating.
The bills seem to show four definite groups - Taylor's lads, Crabtrees from Halifax, Barnsley lads, and Manchester.
As for Padvo de Owl? What a hoot!
Notice above that the Bourne Corn Exchange was also featured. Could do with some local knowledge , but I bet it would struggle to pack in 300. But this was what Independent Promoters were good at and at the same time looked after the wrestlers wages.
More Fascinating Stuff RON!-Many Thanx!
I'm Very Well-Travelled-but I too Have Never Been to LINCOLN!!
MM