THE FIRST STAN RYLANDS-THE WRESTLER!

Wryton promotions used a nightclub in Hulme virtually as a training school for young wrestlers often working either against each other or a veteran. But in any case just to provide entertainment. Again these bills probably won't be found anywhere else.

And some more bills for Wryton especially a look round North Wales.

Over the next 12 years or so Stan Ryland made about 50 appearances at Belle Vue.

The bills were hard worked for and snapped from a viewer that was not digital, Well worth the effort though if the collection helps and entertains others. Some of the bills are poor images but these are some of the best nights.

At the end of 1956 Joint Promotions took over from Dick Rogers and wife Jessie at Belle Vue and made a slight adjustment to the advertising in always including the referee. Here are the earliest ones with Stan Rylands. There were a handful of refs that shared thos honour.

Some early Stan Rylands the wrestler. Just take a screen copy , I don't have hard copies.

Majid Ackra did a couple of shows for me in the late seventies. I promoted him against Abe Ginsberg at The Dixon Arms, Chelford, and against Lee Sharron at Halton British Legion, Runcorn. I refereed on both occasions and they did six cats. I recall the bout with Sharron quite vividly. He was very "down" when he arrived (with Kellett, who was wrestling Ginsberg for me as top of the bill) as he had just been visiting his father in hospital where he was on his last legs. He said that he didn't feel like doing "the usual nonsense" and asked if he could just wrestle to which i readily assented. I thought that he and Ackra produced an excellent bout but Ackra was wrestling very little at the time and Lee commented that he was very stiff to work with.

I've never seen a match bill with him on... What an ace find. He passed away September 1982.

Majid Ackra was great. Skilful but a but nasty. A touch of Asian pride. Reminded me strangely of Clayton Thomson and I think I remember seeing the pair on tv.

Signed a splendid autograph, too.

I would think he's this one in the A-Z with a different spelling:

Accra

Fans of 1960s wrestling will most likely remember a popular wrestler called Majid Ackra. Unknown to most of us at the time was that Accra was the son of a very well respected wrestler. The wrestler known as Accra, sometimes Great Accra, in the 1940s and 1950s was an Olympic competitor in the freestyle wrestling event at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.  Karam Rasul Kashmiri, that was  Accra's birth name,  was born in India on  17th May, 1911. Following the Second World War he moved  to Manchester where he combined ownership of a drapery store in Moss Side with wrestling commitments throughout the north and midlands.  Naturally he also trained his son to wrestle before passing young Majid Ackra on to Jack Atherton for final preparation as a professional wrestler..

Was this Ackra the same as Majid Ackra?

It was definitely Stan

Another point of logic: a 20-year.-old could not have reffed that bout. He was 43 with all the experience that went with it.

Must have consumed a great amount of ginseng tea!

Maybe, but afraid so Main Mask. I reckon you've uncovered a flyer of the one and only Stan Rylands.

Stan Rylands was born on 30th June 1923, married in 1945, so could well have been the 1947 wrestler we see here. He died in 1982.

Given that his son, Bobby Ryan, started out in about 1969 and was aged about 20, we can assume Stan was born no later than 1930 ... which makes these 1947 appearances quite possibly, probably, him.

Maybe we are distracted by the fact that he always looked so baby-faced?

Stan Rylands had a short career in 1947 and 1948. Most of his matches were in the midlands. What makes you think this is not Stan Rylands the referee MM?