By Mike Richards
Wrestle while you work?
Well, not quite, but Garringtons in Bromsgrove did have a novel way of attracting the workers in on a Sunday afternoon.
Not for overtime, you understand, but for the chance to let off a bit of steam cheering on our favourite mat stars.
Garringtons operated in Bromsgrove for over fifty years and was regarded as the premier forging factory in Europe.
Throughout the year Jack Atherton put on wrestling shows in the works canteen on a Sunday afternoon. Not every Sunday, but maybe seven or eight during the year. From 1961 until 1963 the Garrington wrestling had been on Saturday nights, but I was still at school in those days!
In 1964 the wrestling shows moved to Sunday afternoon. I was working at Garringtons by then and became a regular; there was no other way they would get me into work on a Sunday. The place was always packed. Five hundred fans could pack into the works canteen, and usually five hundred of us did. That might not have been many for a wrestling show in those days but we still got to see most of the big names, and the atmosphere in there was terrific. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
One summer there was an open air show held on the sports field with Masambula on the bill. Jack Atherton, the promoter, was often at ringside, and liked to get involved. On one occasion he accused the Black Diamonds of having something hidden inside their leather helmets. He then went on to take silver coins from inside each helmet, and of course the fans went wild.
One of my friends was on the Entertainment Committee and he managed to get me the poster for the shows, but like so many readers of Wrestling Heritage my collection was long ago consigned to the bin. Memories now rely on the photos that I took at the shows.
The large windows in the roof let in a great deal of light, especially on sunny days, and so the atmosphere was never quite as good as in a darkened hall. Nature gave a helping hand from the end of October onwards and darkness would descend during the second half of the show.
Things still got heated on occasions and the shows were every bit as good as those we paid to watch elsewhere. As I lived in Bromsgrove which is midway between Birmingham and Worcester I was able to go along to the wrestling at Digbeth Civic Hall and Embassy Sportsdrome, two legendary venues in Birmingham, and the Corn Exchange in Worcester. All the big names of the time appeared at one time or another at Garringtons. Kendo Nagasaki, Jackie Pallo, The Black Diamonds, Jim Hussey, Mick McManus, The Cadman Brothers, Seamus & Mike Donlevy, Ian Campbell, Bruno Elrington, Alan Woods, Jack Fallon, The White Eagles, The St. Clair brothers, Billy Joyce, Massambula, Honey Boy Zimba, Jack Dempsey, Jan Kovacs, Bert Royal, John Foley, Quasimodo, Ski Hi Lee and Ricky Starr all came along to our works canteen. I think you’ll agree that that’s quite a collection of stars for such a small venue. We always had plenty to talk about during the Monday lunch break.
Incredible really, to think those men were in the ring at Garrington’s one Sunday and could be in front of five thousands fans at the Royal Albert Hall a few days later. On the afternoon the above shots were taken one of the wrestlers had failed to turn up and so Vic Faulkner doubled up and appeared twice. In the match at the top left of the page he is wrestling Tony Charles who he defeated. Vic also wrestled Eric Cutler, who partnered Abe Ginsberg in the Black Diamonds tag team. As you can imagine Eric was the villain and all the fans were behind Vic, who won the match. The rest of the bill was pretty good too. The masked man Kendo Nagasaki topped the bill, winning as usual against Warrington’s Les Herberts. The remaining supporting contest saw Mike Dallas grab a win over John Grant
The referee on most occasions was either Emile Poilve or Carl Dane. The referee in these photos was the ex wrestler Carl Dane. They had a hard time some Sundays, but that was par for the course for all referees.The Garrington shows continued until about 1968. They were moved from the Sunday afternoon to mid week evenings.
The new promoter was Barry Potter. I only saw one of the evening shows, which had Ski Hi Lee against Bob Taylor in the main event. It was never the same in the evenings. Some of the workforce were working nights, and maybe others just didn’t feel like coming back to work in the evenings. The crowds began to fall away and after two or three shows they finished. A sad day for everyone, for the workers and my good friend Harry, who was one of the regular seconds.seen here. No more wrestling. Now there’s no more Garringtons.
It’s amazing that for about 4 months during 1966/67 our town had 2 venues to see wrestling, one was Garringtons Works Canteen, the other being Bromsgrove Baths for evening shows. The Baths was home of the independents, in this case the legendary Lew Phillips. After travelling to Digbeth Civic Hall a number of times to see his shows, I was pleased to see his name on a poster advertising his first show on November 21, 1966. Here’s the bill …
BRONCO JACK CASSIDY VS. THE APACHE
PAUL CARPENTIER VS. ALAN WALKER
THE GUARDSMAN VS. VINCE AURALIS
MICKY FEAR VS. PAT RYAN
I remember the place being packed, I was near the back with my girlfriend and a couple of pals. All I can remember now is the Cassidy, Apache match where the blood flowed freely, was it real or fake, I couldn’t really tell from my near back row seat, but I do remember my girlfriend hated it, and wouldn’t go to another show with me! The headline on the sports page of local paper the following week had the obvious title of “Bloodbath At The Baths”; Lew Philips was on to a winner. The next bill on December 5 was …
MAD JOCK CAMPBELL VS. COUNT JOHN
SPIKE O’REILLY VS. WERNER HECT
KILLER KEN DAVIES VS. PRINCE BARNU (replaced by Harry Yardley)
REG YATES VS. JOHNNY HEMMS
I remember Jock Campbell was disqualified for doing a non-stop stomp on Count John, but the most hated man of the night was Killer Ken Davies. I’d seen Killer Ken a few times at Digbeth and knew how he could really anger the audience. After Ken had done his dirty work on Harry Yardley we actually had Digbeth style crowd heat at the Baths. A return match was demanded, which took place in January the following year; here’s the bill for January 9 1967.
HARRY YARDLEY 
VS. KILLER KEN DAVIES
MICKY FEAR VS. SANDOR DEMETER (HUNGARY)
BILLY YUKON VS. THE VAMPIRE (SWEDEN) (DISQ.)
HEINI & WILLIE SCHOLZ (GERMANY) VS. PAT RYAN & BILLY JORDAN
Once again Killer Ken was at his most evil and another near riot was caused, thankfully Harry Yardley won the bout and that cooled down the crowd. I can’t remember a thing about the other bouts on the bill. The shows then ran every fortnight until last show of season in early March; at that time the swimming pool section was opened for the swimming season. Here are the top of the bill bouts before the last show in March.
BRONCO JACK CASSIDY VS. THE APACHE (RETURN MATCH)
DOCTOR DEATH VS. SPIKE O’REILLY
THE SNAKEMAN VS. KILLER KEN DAVIES
Another near crowd riot occurred at this show, not because of the antics of the diabolical Killer Ken, but because The Snakeman appeared without his snake, the excuse from Lew Phillips was that the snake was held up in quarantine! The audience was not happy. The final bill of the season on March 6, 1967 was
THE UNDERTAKERS VS. REV. DANNY BRETT & REV. MARK FORREST
MIGHTY CHANG MATSUDO VS. VINCE APOLLO (USA)
DON MITCHELL VS. LENO LARAZZI (ITALY)
BILL BOYD VS. ALEX BELL
Only Lew Phillips could think up that top of the bill, Undertakers versus Reverends, amazing! I was 20 years old at that time, but it was still a thrill to see The Undertakers billed for Bromsgrove. I knew the team were a real menacing pair from seeing them at shows at Digbeth and other Midlands venues. Unfortunately at this show I can just about recall it being comic villainy, and they allowed themselves to be made look fools by “the reverends”. I wasn’t happy about that; but the most disappointing thing about the whole show that I remember very well, was realising that two of the wrestlers in supporting bouts were actually The Undertakers without their masks, Leno Larazzi was the tall Undertaker, and stocky Vince Apollo was the shorter Undertaker. I don’t think all of the audience picked up on this, but I’d seen them enough times to spot it straight away. Wrestling at the Baths did not return until February 27, 1968, still independent but not presented by Lew Phillips. This time Barry Potter was the promoter, I think he used to work for Lew as a referee. Here’s the bill.
KLONDYKE BILL VS. ORIG WILLIAMS (W BY DISQ.)
PEDRO THE GYPSEY VS. STOKER BROOKS
REG YATES VS. DAVE PRESTON
ERIC TAYLOR VS. GORDON CORBETT
Taylor did not appear, JUMPING JIM MOSER instead
The baths opened for the swimming season in early March, so that was the one and only show. Barry Potter then moved to Garringtons Works Canteen to promote mid week evening shows, unfortunately as mentioned in my previous article, these shows were not well attended and there were only about 3 shows during the early part of 1968. Because of my night shift work I only saw one of the shows, that was on April 18; here’s the bill.
SKI HI LEE VS. BOB TAYLOR (WON BY DISQ.)
JACK DEMPSEY VS. FRED WOOLEY
DOCTOR DEATH VS. BOBBY VEIDOR BELL (WON BY DISQ.)
CHIEF THUNDERBIRD VS. GWYN SULLIVAN
That was the last ever wrestling season at Garringtons, and the Feb 27 show at the Baths was the last one there; it did return briefly in the late 1980s for a short season, I remember seeing Fit Finley against Ringo Rigby, but that was it, all over. I have two more special Bromsgrove shows to write about another time.
Regular Bromsgrove wrestling shows came to an end in 1968. The Garringtons shows suffered because of the move from the well attended Sunday afternoon Jack Atherton promotions, to the evening mid week Independent wrestling promoted by Barry Potter; which caused a fairly large drop in attendance, bringing the wrestling to an end. Potter also had the last show of the regular wrestling at the Bromsgrove Baths. I have tried to find out why the successful Garringtons Sunday shows made the bad decision to move to mid week, but too much time has passed, and I suppose it’s not really that important to have it written down anywhere. Maybe a new works entertainment committee had their reasons; maybe Jack Atherton decided to finish his wrestling shows for whatever reason, I don’t know. During 1967 and that final 1968 wrestling year, two shows that I remember, with help from old copies of the local newspaper, were one off specials, one successful and one a total failure. The successful show was,
BROMSGROVE ST. JOHNS FAYRE JUNE 12, 1967
JOHNNY HEMMS VS. DAVE SCAWTHORNE
JOHNNY PETERS VS. GORILLA REG RAY
This was a well-attended event that took place on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the grounds of Bromsgrove St. John’s vicarage. A wrestling ring was set up on the large lawn and there were 2 bouts. What made it extra unusual, and also turned it into a comedy show, the St. John’s vicar was referee for the first bout! So we’re not here to take wrestling seriously, it was a fun afternoon. I’ve been asked why only two bouts; although the wrestling show was the main attraction of the Fayre, there were other things going on as well, so I guess it was probably time limit, plus the cost. I remember reading that the vicar had travelled to meet the wrestlers and promoter a week or so before, I think it was in Birmingham, or somewhere close to the city, but sorry I don’t know who the promoter was. Maybe Lew Phillips or Gordon Corbett, just a guess, I don’t recall seeing Lew on the day, and I definitely knew what he looked like from my many visits to Digbeth. The unfortunate wrestling show failure, was at Bromsgrove Rovers football ground on June 11, 1968. Here’s the bill,
OPEN AIR 8PM START
MASSAMBULA VS. BARRY DOUGLAS
HONEYBOY ZIMBA VS. JOHN FOLEY
IAN GILMOUR VS. MEL RISS
BOBO MATU (WON BY DISQ.) VS. ACHMED THE STRONG
FOLEY DID NOT APPEAR, ACHMED WRESTLED TWICE
There were seats for 1000 people, but only 200 seats were filled, this was blamed on the weather, unfortunately even though it was June, it was very cool with light rain and drizzle. I do remember feeling quite uncomfortable, but it was a good bill and some good wrestling considering the conditions. Achmed became a favourite that night.
That was it, the final wrestling of 1968, and the last wrestling in Bromsgrove for many years, until a short season at the Bromsgrove Baths in the late 1980s.
Wrestling Heritage 