WORTHING

Unlike many towns I have not been able to find any wrestling in Worthing during the 1930's and 1940's.

In 1949 Dale Martins tried to negotiate any Hall with the Council but nothing could be found.

Finally in the Autumn of 1950 Dales tried the Drill Hall. With patience they resumed after new year with some more shows.

It was a very Dale Martins look , just a few imports and at that time very few overseas wrestlers. By the end of Spring Dales pulled out. You can see all the shows and study the regular Roster plus a few from the North.

The truth is that wrestling was struggling in the 1950's despite recovery from the war years , new rules and in Joint Promotions , a consortium to better the standards.

Dales stated in the papers that they were promoting in 50 towns and that support in Worthing had not been quite there. The Drill Hall had been found but only held about 500 people. It begs the question as to how in later years Independent Promoters could make a profit doing shows with only 200-300 spectators.

Dales simply stated that they were not making money and after six months pulled out.

The Pier Pavilion was found a few years later with a capacity of 1050. Just four more shows were tried through the Autumn of 54 into Spring 55. I thought the advertising was poor and in some cases I have added in the full show. They thought they were giving the fans champions and the best on offer , but in the main 800 was the regular attendance. Threats went in the papers about poor attendance , I question if that was a good strategy and as a Time Detective , I open up a window in time as to how different wresting was in 1955 to maybe 1963-1965.

Take the November 1954 bill with Bert Royal and Mick McManus , it was not even advertised , can you imagine that by 1970. Fortunately it made the Write up in the local paper. But just how big was Mick in 1954. Well they had to bring from the north Bert Royal , son of a famous wrestler. Mick was thrown out of the ring three times , each on a count of nine. Finally Bert slapped him in an agonising Boston Crab for Mick to submit and be unable to continue. So Mick got his proverbial Kicked.

The April 1955 bill had Jackie Pallo getting Knocked out by Pat Kloke. I read somewhere that Jackie said he never got a significant win in his early years. There you have it.

And then February 1955 , just Jack Demsey mentioned on the advert for an 8 man Tourney. How poor was that. Reported in the paper that many of the bouts were a poor affair with wrestlers seen many times recently. Hall full of schoolboys booing at the boring fayre on offer.

Well my little window offers that Ken Joyce beat Pat Kloke , Jim Lewis beat Peter Rann , Demsey beat Young Milo and Mick beat Ken Shaw.

In the semis Mick beat Lewis and Dempsey beat Joyce.

The final had Mick rising in prominence to beat Demsey. For this one they almost filled the Hall with 1000.

But by that April bill 1955 which also had Norman Walsh knocking out Marino and Howes destroying Mangotich , the plug was pulled again with Dales still not happy.

The truth is that it was going better in Brighton and even Bognor and Eastborne were doing better.

Two failures but by 1962 there was a big change. Wrestling in the later 50's had gone on TV and there was an upsurge in popularity probably peaking in 1963. Yes Wrestling at Worthing came back for a third time. Both on the Pier and probably more popular at the Assembly Rooms.

Just a little bit from the Historical one and Happy Christmas.