Venues for ITV broadcasts

Good job Graham wasn't in the Caribbean with his girlfriend.................Jamaica to be exact.

Graham, your Prestatyn didn't escape me, very nice!

The North Wales shows in the 60s were still very much in Granada or more likely, ABC (weekends in the North and Midlands) territory. They were one of the contractors experienced in wrestling broadcasts.

I remember seeing a show from Scotland, I think Klondike Kate was on the show, possibly the mid to late 1980s.

Yes, according to the information I have from Ray and from the ITV Wrestling website, the TV shows from Prestatyn were in August 1965, May 1966, September 1966, June 1967 and June 1968

The shows from Prestatyn were in the mid to late sixties.

Graham is correct; there was a taping at Plas Madoc Leisure Centre, Ruabon (between Wrexham and Llangollen) on 6th May 1976. Matches were shown on ITV on Wednesday evening broadcasts over the following few weeks and included Kendo Nagasaki vs Gwynn Davies and Johnny Saint vs Bobby Ryan.

The book which Saxonwolf refers to is a book about ITV wrestling in the 1980s and so may well be correct in reference to that decade.

I pass Plas Madoc each summer on my journey to my holiday in Aberystwyth and always remember that it was an ITV wrestling venue. Also on the journey I pass the Bro Dyfi Leisure Centre in Machynlleth which was a venue used by Orig Williams for his Reslo TV series on S4C

I haven't read the book you reference but if it does state that no televised wrestling for ITV came outside of England, it is wrong. I know. I was there in the audience in Prestatyn with my father when the shows were recorded. They started recording at 2.30pm and got the two bouts in the bag for showing late the following Wednesday evening then, round about 3.50pm, they started recording live for broadcast that afternoon with the nation joining the broadcast at 4.0pm. They would break away from live TV coverage around 4.50pm to broadcast the football results and the matches would continue to completion for those in the hall. No research in a book can compare with actually being there and watching it occur before your very eyes.

I wasn't there for the Crabtree show from Ruabon but I do very clearly recall it taking place and being billed in the TV Times.

The research in the book "Saturday afternoon wars" states that no televised wrestling, for ITV, came outside of England.

That's absolutely correct. About half an hour ago I posted memories of seeing Billy Robinson versus Gwynn Davies there. I also recall seeing Johnny Da Silva, Reg Williams and Roy "Bull" Davies. Crabtree introduced quite a few new halls when he took over Joint and I recall a televised show from a leisure centre in Ruabon.

There were a few shows from a holiday camp in Prestatyn in the mid-late 60s. They had some big matches/names that you wouldn't normally get on camp shows (eg Billy Robinson vs Gwyn Davies) but I seem to recall somebody saying they didn't get good crowds because it was changeover say so most camp guests were either leaving or arriving during the broadcast.

Nothing in the North East as far as I know, St James Hall once had a boxing broadcast for the BBC in the early 1960s, but no wrestling.

I can’t think of one offhand. A lot of things come into it: for example, which ITV contractors had the equipment/expertise, and venue suitability. I think if you analysed the locations, you’d find few, if any, broadcasts from outside the Rediffusion/ABC, ATV and Granada/Yorkshire areas.