I appreciate the interest Hack. It's a combination of beavering away and life getting in the way at the moment, but I do plan on completing this project in the next few months. The next step is to locate the original source for a Henry Rose quote used by Billy Riley to promote Joyce on this 16 Feb 1950 card: Rose was one of the preeminent sports journalists of his time, and the Express - along with the Mirror - the most widely circulated newspapers in the country. The search function for the Express archives brought up nothing on Joyce, and that's where my hunt temporarily stopped.

I think you may be right once again Ron. Did Oakely have the same "Robert Robinson" for his November 1948 show at Earls Court? Or were we back to "Bob" there? For a different promotion in Essex, I do have Milo (Popocopolis I presume) defeating Joyce on 27 December 1949. Joyce apparently had a win over Milo going into the title match and is billed as the Northern-Area Light Heavy champion.

Fantastic research as always Ron. Thank you.

Thank you for the Mat Review clipping Hack. The extra information on weight cutoffs seems to make it clear to me that the "best at his weight" comments are referring mostly to the Light Heavyweight division post-1943.

You're correct Ron - Ben Joyce is Billy Joyce. 21 July 1939 card lists "Ben" as making his Preston debut in a losing effort to Billy Daniels. The 25 Aug card lists Billy as making his 2nd appearance there with the first being...a losing effort to Daniels. Good enough for me:

I appreciate the response Saxon. For titles & challengers, I'm looking for a clipping of this: https://wrestlingheritage.co.uk/a-year-of-wrestling-1946/ "The December 1946 issue of The Mat magazine (published before the deliberations of the Board) listed the champions and challengers as follows.​ Featherweight (Upto 9st 11lb): Champion : Vacant; 1. Alf Jenkins, 2. George Busfield, 3. Johnny Summers, 4. Alan Colbeck, 5. Pat Brennan Lightweight (Upto 10st 8lb): Champion: Joe Reid; 1. Jack Dempsey, 2. Tommy Mann, 3. Jim Mellor, 4. George Kidd; 5. Carlton Smith Welterweight (Upto 11st 5lb): Champion Cliff Belshaw; 1. Les Kellett, 2. Les Stent’ 3. Harry Fields, 4. Cyril Knowles-Peters, 5. Cliff Green Middleweight (Upto 12st 2lb): Champion Jack Beaumont; 1. Beau Ricardo, 2. Jim Anderson, 3. Tim McCoy, 4. Stan Stone, 5. Joe Hill Light Heavyweight (Up to 13st 0lb): Champion: Vacant; 1. Tony Baer, 2. Robert McDonald, 3. Henry Wilkie, 4. George Finnie, 5. Billy Joyce Heavyweight: Champion: Bert Assirati; 1. The Farmer, 2. Dave Armstrong, 3. Jim Hussey, 4. Ernest Baldwin, 5. Sandy Orford.​" I'm not sure if these are the same weight cutoffs mentioned in the Blue Blood book.

Apologies for bumping an old thread, but I've just begun a deep dive into Billy Joyce and found some evidence to suggest 1939 is a very good bet for his debut year:

Apologies to bump this old thread, but did we ever get confirmation on whether this was the same Francis Sullivan? In the footage he's the taller guy who looks somewhat similar to the pictures on the heritage site. His tag partner, Martino, is the man with a bald spot. I've seen a couple of 1967 & 1968 All Star International cards with him billed on them, so the 1966 retirement may not be true. The only problem is the weight division. The announcer seems to pushing hard that these are lighter weight guys, and Sullivan was always a heavy/light heavy so...I'm not sure. Any helping IDing this man would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.