Wrestling Heritage

When I was 12, or 13, I cannot even remember exactly when, I was reading a book by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it was called The White Company. It was an action book, also related to history, my favourite type during that time period. In that novel there was an account of a certain wrestling match which happened in a pub called Pied Merlin and was carried under the catch as catch can rules. And certain verses from that book just got stuck in my mind, these:

“How shall it be, then, mon enfant? Collar and elbow, or close-lock, or catch how you can?”…” “Shalt clip me as best you can then,” quoth the archer”…” As big John flung himself upon him, the archer ducked under the great red hands that clutched for him, and, catching his man round the thighs, hurled him over his shoulder”.

I didn’t know much about wrestling history back then, other than that it was an essential Olympic sport, and it was my very first time when I accidentally was introduced into the world of catch wrestling.

Ironically the decider in that match was an infamous Lancashire Throw or a pro wrestling’s most famous Back Body Drop. I couldn’t have even imagined that this short intro, just a few phrases from that book where the catch wrestling was mentioned, were going to change my life and in the future would become a subject of my major wrestling history research. In the sweet memory of that I chose The Wrestling Match at the “Pied Merlin” (1922), a painting by N.C. Wyeth, which is based on Conan Doyle’s The White Company to be a cover picture of this article.

I also would like to add that when I was around 15 a friend of mine, knowing my passion for pro wrestling, kindly shared with me a black and white photo copy of the Russian pre-Communist “wrestling book” by the famous “athletic baron” called M.O. Kister. Unfortunately his copy of the book lacked all the images, but the textual content, the articles on most of the popular wrestling styles were present there, and that is where from I learned about the existence of Lancashire wrestling.

18004

The most famous 19th century pro Lancashire catch-as-catch-can wrestlers

1820s/30s
Sam Ashton and John Cock both of Ashton, Bob Bootal, John Rowland, James Sugden (Pain) and Seth Holden (Horwich Youth) all of Bolton, John Holt and William Buckley (Trout) both of Oldham, the famous sporting celebrity Johnny Cheetham of Manchester.

1840s/50s
Legendary Adam Ridings (Dockum) of Bury, James Matley (Barrel) of Ashton, James Buckley of Middleton, George Swithenbank of Saddleworth, “Big” Dan Heywood of Oldham, the undefeated heavyweight champion called William Swann of Ashton, as well as the champion heavyweight boxer of England Sam Hurst of Stalybridge.

1860s
The best pound for pound catch wrestler of the Golden Age of Catch called Teddy Lowe of Whitworth, John Meadowcroft, Henry Councel and David Bentley all from Bury, William Schora, Tom Haigh, Joe Acton I, Frank Robinson, John Massey, Joseph Newton (Teapot) all from the Ashton areas.

1870s
The first American champion of Lancastrian breed called Edwin Bibby of Ashton (who at first was the undefeated 9st champion and then switched to an open weight class competitions), John Lees, John Butterworth (Dockum II) both of Oldham, the undefeated heavyweight champion William Snape (Dipper) of Bolton aka as the terror among the men, the first great Wiganer John Tonge (Eckersley), also Joe Acton II, William Moullineux (Sellars), Miles Sweeney all of Wigan.

1880s/90s
Abraham Travis (Ab-o-Wags) of Oldham, James Faulkner, Isaac Smith, William Winstanley (Soap), great wrestling educator legendary Tom Connor, Charles Green, Tom Jones (Burgy Ben) the winner of the biggest tourney in history, Joe Carroll the first official winner of the British championship (1899), James Morris (Stockley) all from the Wigan areas, Tom Clayton (Bulldog) of Bolton, James Mellor, Jack Smith both of Stalybridge, and finally Sam Moores of Salford, arguably the best pound for pound catch-as-catch-can wrestler in history.