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Dave Barrie was okay. That’s probably a bit unfair. Well, a lot unfair. We enjoyed watching him, which is what it was all about. He was a skilled wrestler who was agile and fast. What more could we want? Well, to be fair, no more really. We are known for championing the lesser known names. Yes we are being unfair, as promoter Graham Brook pointed out; “What a good wrestler Dave Barrie was. As a youngster one of my regular haunts was The Gaiety Theatre in Rhyl where, in conjunction with Wryton, local councillor Roy Turner promoted (if hiring a show booked by Martin Conroy can be classed as promotion) and MCd every Saturday night during the holiday season and Dave Barrie appeared regularly on the bills travelling with dad Les (though the connection was never made clear to the punters).”
That’s the thing. Dave Barrie was the son of Les Kellett. To be fair he never made it known and didn’t try to benefit from his dad’s fame.
So our initial assessment is unfair. Dave Barrie was a good and popular middleweight of the 1970s, and unfortunately one of the many that never made it through and made his mark.
He turned semi professional as an eighteen year old in 1966 and gave up the day job just a year later. For Dave the “day job” had been a variety of jobs that included a brickies labourer, lorry driving, car scrapping and pig farming.
Not surprising that wrestling had an appeal! By the late sixties he seemed to be everywhere and beat the best in the business: Breaks, Saint, Boscik all ended up on the wrong end of the decision. The results were inconsistent, though, and his charismawas not enough to take him into the big time.
In the ring Dave was always the good guy, except on one occasion remembered by Graham Brook, “Barrie was matched against Al Marquette and went villain. I know little about Al’s personal life but he entered the auditorium with a party of adults with obvious learning difficulties and got them seated before going backstage to get ready for his bout with Barrie. It was probably felt that it would be good if Marquette’s contingent could cheer him on, and this would be more successful if he was fighting a villain so Barrie went in with the fist, argued with the referee, rubbed Marquette’s eyes across the top rope; the entire works. The effect was slightly marred however for those of us who noticed Les hiding behind the curtain at the back of the stage, peeping through and hardly being able to contain his laughter at his son’s villainous antics.”
Dave Barrie, born 11th December, 1947, died in December 1999.
Page added 03/11/2024
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