Also known as Norman Kenworthy, Norman Kenny, Bearded Monarch
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Sparky By Day, Sparks By Night
Numerous colourful Turks graced British rings, mostly entering the ring in colourful national costume before proceeding to do all kinds of dastardly things to their opponent. An eighteen stones moustachioed heavyweight of the late 1950s and 1960s Achmed wrestled for both the independent promoters and Joint Promotions.
Former amateur wrestler Allan Best recalled meeting Achmed the Strong when training in Lancashire. Alan told us, “I was astonished when he appeared in the ring sporting a moustache and apparently unable to speak English. I’d only heard him with a Lancashire accent.”
That Lancashire accent could be accounted for because Achmed was no Turk. Well don’t be so surprised, this was professional wrestling. In July 1965 the Sunday newspaper The People identified Achmed the Strong as Norman Kenworthy of Hapton, a village near Burnley in Lancashire. Heritage member Phil Kenyon remembers Norman training at Bob Bannister’s gymnasium in Accrington alongside Ian St John, Andreas Svajics, Don Plummer and Phil himself.
Norman Kenworthy was born on 18th September, 1929, the son of Thomas, who worked in the cotton trade, and Alice. A wrestler by night Norman was an electrician by day at the Monteith and Heyworth garage in Nelson. An item on the BBC Look North news magazine programme in February, 1969 followed him during the day at the garage and on to a wrestling contest at his local hall the Imperial Ballroom in Nelson, exchanging his flat cloth cap for a red fez. This was his seventh appearance at the hall. Was it co-incidence that this was his first win? Fortuitously when the BBC cameras were present.
Wrestling opportunities grew in the late 1950s and we find him on one of the rare occasions using the names Norman Kenny, Norman Kenworthy, and a hark back to the past, The Bearded Monarch. Achmed received regular work from a new batch of independent promoters such as Jack Taylor, Max Crabtree and Cape Promotions. At that time Achmed worked mainly in the north West of England. His activities became more widespread when he started working for Joint Promotions. This brought a new range of high calibre opponents that included Dave Armstrong, Billy Joyce, Kendo Nagasaki and Gordon Nelson, with Achmed usually on the losing end.
Reader Mike Richards has supplied photos of Achmed during a bout with Billy Joyce at Bromsgrove.
Norman Kenworthy died 1990.
Page added 15/02/2026
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