Week Beginning 31st May
31 May 1900
Birth of Atholl Oakeley
Read our tribute to Atholl Oakeley
31 May 1927
Birth of Tiger Joe Robinson
Read our tribute to Tiger Joe and family
31 May 1934
Birth of Pete Curry
Read our tribute to Pete Curry
31 May 1935
Wrestling Inquiry
Home Secretary Sir John Gilbert announced he would inquire into the law regarding all-in wrestling on Sundays. This was in response to the matter being raised by the National Liberal M.P. for Gateshead, Thomas Magnay.
31 May 1935
Wrestler Seriously Injured
Barnsley’s Bert Mansfield was seriously injured in a contest at the Alcazar Picture House, Edmonton. He was admitted to North Middlesex Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for internal injuries. He was also reported to have a broken arm. The following morning the hospital issued a statement that he was comfortable, the operation had been successful and his life was not in danger.
31 May 1939
Birth of John Cox
Read our tribute to John Cox
31 May 1958
War of the Roses
In a return contest following a draw two weeks earlier British light heavyweight champion Ernie Riley defeated Eric Taylor in Middlesbrough to retain the title.
31 May 1960
Riley Retains Title
Ernie Riley retained the British light heavyweight title against Arthur Ricardo at the Granby Halls in Leicester.
31 May 1961
Taylor Outclasses Royal
In Grimsby a British Heavy Middleweight Title match and Eric Taylor retained the title against Bert Royal.
31 May 1972
A Brick Wall for Steve
In April Steve Veidor had won the Royal Albert Hall Trophy. He returned to the Kensington venue one month later to challenge Albert Wall for the British heavyweight title. He couldn’t repeat his success and Wall retained the title.
31 May 1974
Death of Ski Hi Lee
Read our tribute to Ski Hi Lee
31 May 1982
Kilby Keeps Hold
In Tunbridge Wells Alan Kilby retained the British Heavy Middleweight title by beating Mal Sanders.
01 June 1939
Birth of Tony Rowney
Read our tribute to Tony Rowney
01 June 1956
Duke Makes The Finals
The Duke of Edinburgh’s 1963 attendance at the wrestling is often remembered. It may surprise many that this was not the first time Prince Philip had shown an interest in the sport. On 1st June, 1956 he attended the finals of the British Amateur Wrestling Championship at the Royal Albert Hall.
01 June 1971
A Double for Goldbelt
Brian Maxine defeated Clay Thomson at Croydon to win the British middleweight title. Maxine was already welterweight champion, a title he relinquished in July.
01 June 2004
Death of Dave Morgan
Dave Morgan is in the A-Z
01 June 2015
Death of Digger Bill Watson
Read our tribute to Digger Bill Watson
02 June 1950
Birth of Steve Casey (Boston)
Read our tribute to Steve Casey
02 June 1965
Championship Night In Middlesbrough
European welterweight champion Alan Colbeck put his belt on the line against Jackie Pallo. He could put it back in his bag at the end of the night following Pallo’s disqualification.
02 June 1967
Jackie Pallo On His Toes
Those wrestlers got all over the place in the 1960s. Wrestler Jackie Pallo cut the ribbon and opened the Bush Shoe Shop on the Uxbridge Road in Shepherds Bush, London.
02 June 1971
Was This Planned?
On television there was a dramatic ending to the Billy Howes and Kendo Nagasaki match with Nagasaki losing his mask and dashing to the dressing room.
03 June 1902
Birth of Ted Tonking
Ted Tonking is in the A-Z
03 June 1936
“God Save The King”
Those were the words uttered by wrestler Bob Gregory. In January Gregory had been ordered to pay £200 to Common Informer Eric Kitchener for staging a wrestling promotion on Sunday. Following Gregory’s appeal he was told the King had exercised his Royal prerogative and halved the £200 penalty. Gregory went on to say “The King has taken pity on me and remitted half the penalty imposed. I count myself among the King’s loyal subjects and am grateful for his clemency.”
03 June 1938
Mud Sticks
Two weeks earlier mud wrestling had been introduced to London fans in Blackfriars. Where London goes Middlesbrough follows. At the Velodrome, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough a ton of clay, 15 gallons of oil and two bags of soot were spread across the ring. Dick the Dormouse and Senor Emmanuel Garcia slid and slipped around the ring until the Dormouse mercifully won in the second round.
03 June 1949
On The Up
The Essex Newsman reported that one of the few post war entertainments that had proved successful in Chelmsford was professional wrestling. In an interview with promoter Percy Felton he told them it had been difficult in the early days because of the poor reputation of pre war wrestling. Felton said the sport had now cleaned up with officially recognised champions and was attracting 800 – 850 spectators to his fortnightly show. He announced plans to bring British heavyweight champion Bert Assirati to Chelmsford to face local wrestler Clem Lawrence.
03 June 1955
Baldwin Keeps Title
Ernest Baldwin defeated Francis St Clair Gregory at the Free Trades Hall in Manchester to retain the British Heavyweight title.
03 June 1966
Women Wrestlers Floored
In a move that was repeated throughout Britain Acton Council stepped in to ban a female wrestling contest at the Town Hall between Naughty Nancy Barton and Mitzi Muller. Promoters of the show, Repromat Promotions, said they were determined to bring female wrestling to Acton one day.
3rd June 1967
Genius Not Required
Just 250 fans were reported to have turned up at Newcastle’s City Hall on Saturday night to watch the Bholu brothers in action.
Boss of Eastern Promotions, Tommy Whelan, told the Sunday Sun, “I can’t understand why they haven’t turned out today. Everywhere else they’ve been we’ve had marvellous audiences.”
Well, it might be a bit late to put right but we’ve got a couple of reasons for you Tommy.
Firstly, around 3,000 fans had been watching wrestling at the nearby New St James Hall on a Saturday night since 1931. Likely this was a habit you were unlikely to break. On that night at the St James Hall they were paying top price of 7/6 (37 1/2 p) to watch Masambula, Johnny Kwango, Leon Arras, Albert Wall, Billy Joyce, Bill Rawlings, Bernard Murray … Secondly, maybe the ringside seats of three guineas (£3. 15p) to watch the Bholus did not compare favourably with the 7/6 (37 1/2 p) of the nearby St James Hall.
03 June 1986
Breaks Keeps title.
At the Fairfield Hall, Croydon Jim Breaks beat Johnny Kidd to retain the European lightweight title.
03 June 1978
Death of Floyd Craggs
Read our tribute to Floyd Craggs
04 June 1927
Birth of Harry Fields
Read our tribute to Harry Fields
04 June 1945
Birth of Johnny Kincaid
Read our tribute to Johnny Kincaid
04 June 1986
Champions Keep Their Titles
Double championship night at the Pavilion in Bath, with both champions retaining their titles. British lightweight champion Steve Grey ended the championship hopes of local wrestler Richie Brooks when Brooks retired in round eight. An unfortunate ending as Brooks had taken the lead with the opening pinfall in round seven. Bristol’s Danny Collins retained the British welterweight title after taking the lead in round four. Challenger Mal Sanders responded over aggressively and received a public warning in the fifth. There was a second public warning for Sanders in round eight and he was finally disqualified in the ninth.
04 June 1989
Death of Mike Demitre
Read our tribute to Mike Demitre
04 June 1967
The Bholus Are In Town
The Bholu brothers were continuing their tour of Britain. High prices for high profile shows. On 4th June they were at the Bingley Hall in Birmingham. Eastern Promotions & Lew Philips advertised The Great Bholu, Gogo, Azam, Aslam Akram and Hamed against a team of Eric Taylor, Bill Verna, Danny Brett, Angus Campbell, George Gordienko and Guy Mitchell. All seats 1 guinea. Reality was that the matches for this tour often bore little resemblance to the advertised programme and we have no details of the tournament that eventually took place.
05 June 1924
Lifesaver
A nine year old girl had fallen into the River Thames near Hammersmith Bridge. She and a man who had attempted to rescue her were both in danger of drowning. Chick Knight jumped into the water and rescued them both.
05 June 1953
Death of Harry Rabin
Read our tribute to Harry Rabin
05 June 1967
Death of Chick Knight
Read our tribute to Chick Knight
05 June 1986
Saint Marches On
At the Colston Hall Bristol there was a knock out win for challenger Johnny Saint to take the World Lightweight Title (Independent) from Jon Cortez.
06 June 1931
Another Win for Clark
In a match advertised as the All-In Heavyweight Championship of England British Heavyweight champion Douglas Clark defeated Johnafesson, who was advertised as World Light Heavyweight Champion. The match ended quickly.It took Clark just 25 seconds for the first fall and injuring Johanfesson. In the second round Johanfesson lasted just 48 seconds. It was reported that 8,000 spectators watched the match at the Huddersfield Football ground despite heavy rain.
06 June 1922
Birth of Alan Garfield
Read our tribute to Alan Garfield
06 June 1963
Colbeck Triumph
Alan Colbeck beat Mick McManus and retained the European welterweight title at Peterborough.
06 June 1970
Faulkner Still Champion
Vic Faulkner retained the European Middleweight title when he stopped Mick McMichael at Belle Vue, Manchester.
06 June 1974
McManus Win
Mick McManus retained the European Middleweight title against Vic Faulkner in Bristol.
06 June 1980
Bartelli Regains Belt
At Liverpool Stadium Count Bartelli beat Hans Streiger to regain the Commonwealth Heavyweight title he had lost a month earlier.
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