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Verdun Leslie were the London based members of the 1970s British Wrestling Alliance. Owners were two promonent wrestlers of the southern England circuit, Judo Al Hollamby and Roger L. Sandilands. They made use of their middle names to create the authoritative sounding Verdun-Leslie.
Verdun-Leslie put on good quality shows featuring many well known names around southern England in the 1970s.
Most famously Verdun-Leslie Promotions were promoters of a historic match in 1979. Their planned contest featuring British Ladies Champion Sue Brittain was prohibited by the Greater London Council as female wrestling had been banned by London County Council during the war.
When the Greater London Council was formed in April, 1965, one of the first acts passed was to continue the ban on female boxing and wrestling. After being prevented from wrestling for Verdun-Leslie Promotions at the Manor Baths, Southwark, in 1977, Sue Brittain took the council to an industrial tribunal on the grounds of sexual discrimination and challenging the bye law. She won her case in June 1979. A few weeks later, on 23rd August, Sue Brittain and Jane St John wrestled the first female match in a London public hall since before the second world war.
See also British Wrestling Alliance.
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