Also known as Casey Pye, Gypsy Benito
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I’m Harry, Just Call Me Casey
If anything was in a name then this Barnsley heavyweight villain would know best, because he had three of them. Apart from Harry for quite a few years in the 1960s he portrayed Dominic Pye’s wrestling brother, Crafty Casey Pye whilst at other times he was Gypsy Benito.
Gypsy, Crafty Casey, Licker or Rough House Harry irrespective of the name the straggly hair and more than a touch of arrogance assured us he was the villain. Few matches passed without those long locks being tied to the ropes or his foot being caught between them (often to be attacked by a brolly wielding female fan). The fans loved it. Between rounds he would shake the bottle of water over his head and shake the mane like a dog out of water. He knew how to upset us.
Like most other wrestlers from Barnsley Harry learned the business in Charlie Glover’s Junction Gym, alongside Dwight J Ingleburgh, Stoker Brooks, Pedro the Gypsy and all the other Barnsley lads. He worked from his Barrnsley home during the fifties and early sixties for both independents and Joint Promotions, sharing his time with a second hand furniture business. Dwight J Ingleburgh recalled, “Harry was already in the business when I started out around 1957 and I worked with him many times. Like Jack Land he was easy to work with most of the time. When I say he was easy to work with most of the time but sometimes he could be unpredictable.”
The earliest we have found documented evidence of Harry in action is in October, 1947, when he would have been twenty-one years old. That was earlier than we expected and means he was around for a quarter of a century. One frequent opponent in the early 1960s was boxing champion Randolph Turpin in a series of boxer v wrestler matches.
In 1962 “Rough house” Harry was lured from his Yorkshire home to Blackpool by Dominic Pye to assume the role of Dominic’s wrestling brother, Crafty Casey Pye; a part for which he was perfect. There was no shortage of work for Harry. Harry would appear on Dominic’s Blackpool shows two or three times a week, as well as wrestling throughout the country for Dominic and other independent promoters such as Jack Taylor, Cape Promotions and Lew Phillips.
Harry and Dominic made it to the big screen when they appeared in the 1967 film “Cuckoo Patrol,” which starred the pop group Freddie and the Dreamers.
Nobody could upset the fans quite like Dominic and Casey, and their contests against Angus and Jock Campbell were legendary throughout the North. We last came across Harry in action, working for Lew Phillips in 1970.
Harry Bennett was born in Barnsley on 28th December, 1926 and died on 5th July, 1994.
Page added 03/07/2022
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