Behind the glamorous billing of “Dwight J. Ingleburgh, the visiting American grappler from New Jersey", lies Barnsley wrestler Sam Betts

 
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Sam with: (i) Jack Beaumont, (ii) New Zealander Bruno Becker, and (iii) Fred Hill

Here is Sam's story:

Boxing and wrestling booths

I was born Brian Betts on 13th March 1933 in Barnsley to William and Teresa Betts. They were born in 1885, making them 48 when I was born. I am the youngest and only surviving one of ten children. I was into boxing at a young age, training at the boys’ club and youth club. I had my first paid fight at ten years old as a volunteer on Professor Bosco’s boxing booth. The wage was 2 shillings and 6 pence, which would then buy you 30 bags of chips. I was hooked from then on, and was always at the local boxing booth. In later years I worked the booths from Plymouth to Newcastle, both boxing and wrestling. Henri Pierlot, Bull Davis, Joe Critchley, Mitzi Mueller and many more worked them. You could pick up some good money in the summer when the halls were quiet.

Coalmine, Steelworks, Army and Merchant Navy

Prior to my army days, I had moved to Charlie Glover’s gym at the age of 14. I got good sparring there, both boxing and wrestling. I also started work at 14 in the mines, and after 2 years I moved to the steelworks, from where I was conscripted into the Irish Guards. I did public duties at Buckingham Palace, and after that to Germany until my demob after 2 years. I was in the regimental boxing team throughout my service, starting at welterweight up to light heavyweight, and represented my regiment many times. Shortly after my demob, Peter Worsley my close friend boxed and wrestled along with me and was known as Pete Herman. We joined the Merchant Navy together. We were on the old boats sailing out of Goole, doing 4 hours on, and 4 hours off, shovelling coal into the fires. I enjoyed the physical work, it was my way of keeping fit, I loved it. We progressed to modern liners and travelled the world. We kept up our training at sea, and carried a 200lb set of weights from ship to ship.

Charlie Glover's Junction Gym, Brian Glover and Pedro on the construction sites

I returned to Charlie Glover’s gym about 1956, and my wrestling career began, as did a lot of my mates’ who were trying to find something better than what we had. We trained down at the gym behind The Junction pub on Doncaster Road in Barnsley. The guy who trained us and managed our wrestling was Charlie Glover. He was the father of the actor Brian Glover who is sadly no longer with us. Brian came out of the army not long after I did. We had both been conscripted into the army. We worked on a building site together, but there was no work in Brian, he wouldn’t have it. Pedro (Gordon Allen) was the same, he was on the same site, and he wouldn’t have any work either. When the cement wagons arrived, with 10 tons of cement to be offloaded by hand, Pedro used to disappear, you could never find him. He came into the game late, at around 40 years old. He’d never been in the gym in his life. All he’d done was a bit of weight training. He came in, and he never, ever learned how to go over his head. They used to try to get him to go over, but he would not go over his head. He did most of his bouts stood up, doing his comic act. He had to have someone on with him to pull him over.

(i) Barnsley boxers (Charlie Glover 3rd left). (ii) Brian Glover. (iii) Peter Worsley.
(iv) "Pedro the Gypsy" (top left), Sam, Rasputin and Norman Walsh.

(i) Junction Gym. (ii) "Troupe Continental" - Sam, Tommy Blackburn, Henri Pierlot, Ron Priestley.
(iii) "Troupe Continental" - Henri Pierlot, Blackburn Roberts, Sam and Ron Hinchcliffe.
(iv) Frank Walshaw, Jimmy Birch, Sam, Tommy Wright, Jack Skelly.

Charlie Glover himself also trained at the Junction and fought and travelled with the rest of us. There was Arthur Betton, Ronnie Priestley, Tommy Blackburn, Harry Bennett, Gordon Allan, Herbert Craddock, Trevor Hutchinson, Jack Land etc. My wrestling name was Dwight J. Ingleburgh and I was billed as being from New Jersey, America. This name remained with me throughout my career except when I had to fight as a villain and then wore a mask.

(i) Arthur Betton. (ii) Dominic Pye & Harry Bennett. (iii) Sam vs Karl von Kramer (Jack Land).
(iv) Jack Land, Earl Maynard, Sam.

(i) Herbert Craddock (ii) Jon Paul. (iii) Don Fisher.
(iv) Pedro the Gypsy, Wildman, Cassidy, Manty Swan, Jim Moser, Bobby Baron.

(i) Karl von Kramer. (ii) Harry Bennett.
(iii) Bert Mansfield ex Barnsley wrestler taken 1947 at European Championships in Harringay.
(iv) Unknown Barnsley boxer.

(i) Pye brothers (ii) Butch Goodman and Brian Glover (iii) Pedro, Klondyke Bill

Jon Paul – used to travel the circuit with us, wrestling in clubs. Don Fisher – trained in our gym. Lived (still does) in a mining village near Barnsley called South Emsall. He came into the business with a big, rough lad called Gordon Kilmartin, a really tough guy. Gordon brought him into the business.

I taught Big Bruno Elrington to wrestle, who went on with others to great fame. Catweazle was out of Glovers gym, Mal Kirk, Jimmy Moran, Don Vines, Brian Glover and many more had their first bouts with me. Bruno in turn turned some good lads out in Portsmouth, where he lived. John Kowolski comes to mind.

Sam's Posters

Promoters and dirty tricks

I did quite a bit of work for Charlie and other promoters. I once worked on a bill at Halifax Football Ground. Top of the bill was Akram vs Dara Singh, even though Singh was in India. The show attracted a huge crowd from Bradford and Halifax, with their large communities from the sub-continent, and the ground was nearly full. When the wrestling was well under way, the organisers announced that Dara Singh was unable to appear, and the crowd went crazy, demanding their money back. The promoters did a ‘disappearing act’, and we got no money (we called this ‘getting the knock’), despite the fact that I’d appeared in the second bout, wrestling one of the other Indians.

These particular promoters were terrible people. They wanted you working for them, but would not spend money. When we first went to work for them, there was plenty of work in and around Manchester and up and down to London with Independent Promotions. They had started up a gym and trained a few lads, but had no ‘top of the bill’ material, only Jimmy Armstrong and a lad from Hull, Eric Leaderman.

About 1967 a wrestlers union was formed in Manchester by "Gentleman" Jimmy Lewis, Chick Elliot and Red Callaghan. They set the wages at £6 for bottom of the bill, £8 for a supporting bout and £10 for top of the bill, plus reasonable travel expenses. They started promoting mainly cinemas. They had a good run and paid the promised wages. Jimmy Lewis moved from his run down flat in Manchester and bought a brand new house in Dickenson road near Granada studios.

We were working over at our side, and we’d agreed the £6 - £8 - £10 wages. We thought that was good money, because some people only paid £3 or £4. The Halifax show promoters I mentioned above wanted Jack Land (Karl von Kramer) and me to come over and wrestle for them. I wasn’t bothered about going, but Jack insisted, so I went with him. We got over there, and at first they paid the money, £10, no problem.

Then there was the time we went up to work for them at the El Dorado Hall in Leith. The pickup point was in Leeds. Jack and I trundled over to Leeds, parked the car up and jumped into the van to be taken up to Leith just for one job. We were joined by a gang of young lads from Leeds, learners. We went in and did the job, and got our tenner apiece. We came out, got back to Leeds and the van stopped at the station to let us out. The Leeds lads all queued up for their money. They hadn’t paid them, and the lads had come all the way from Edinburgh and hadn’t asked until then. They fed them money out of the window one by one, and then did a ‘racing start’ away. They’d given the lads £3 apiece. And do you know, they stood for it? He’s the only promoter I can say that ‘knocked’ us. They were control freaks and greedy men ... purveyors of human flesh without morals, who were once reported as saying that "wrestlers should be put in pigeon huts on the Yorkshire moors and only let out when needed". They were nasty people.

I had in excess of 3,000 bouts over 25 years in the sport, but never got the publicity of the TV stars who worked for peanuts. I grew up in the school of hard knocks. A lot of the TV lads were crash course men manufactured by the promoters. Some of them, good workers, came over to our side after because of their disillusionment with Joint Promotions' wages and stayed with us. I had many opportunities to work for Joint Promotions, but I wouldn't submit to their low wages.

I worked for at least 45 promoters that I can bring to mind. Dominic Pye and Don Robinson gave me plenty of work in the summer and were honourable men. Tony Scarla gave me a lot of work and he paid top wages, plus you never had a problem with him over petrol money The London promoters also treated the northern guys well, as Eddie Rose mentioned in his book (page 157). The book is a good translation of wrestling ... well done Eddie lad.

Action Pictures

Sam in the thick of the action

Breaking the ropes!

(i) Sam and Blackburn Roberts (referee: Taffy Jones) (ii) & (iii)Tough battles (iv) Reg Ray & Sam

On the Road, Petrol Money

Most of the promoters were good lads. The London lads were very good payers – Tony Scarla , Len Britton and people like that They gave you £10 a job, 10 shillings for bed and breakfast (which actually cost 7 shillings and 6 pence), and £10 for the car. That was good because you could get to London and back for £3.10s in petrol. It was a marathon, though, taking 7 or 8 hours from Barnsley. There was no motorway then, of course. I was living in a council house, costing me £2.10s per week, so to come home from London with £60 was good money. In theory, we used to share the driving, but only a couple of Barnsley lads had cars. If I was on a bill, I had to do most of the driving. Later on, some of the other lads got cars, including Stoker Brooks. I’d been driving him round for years, but when he got a car, he suddenly decided we should take turns! Pedro (Gordon Allen) was the same. He got a car, but would do anything to get out of driving. When you were driving, you were the one who had to argue for the petrol money. They’d arrange a fixed wage, they’d pay you that, but there was always arguing about petrol money. If you were the car driver, you bore the brunt of all the arguments. The other lads wouldn’t help you out at all. That’s the way it was. We drove some old bangers in those days. When I first started I was going over to Jack Atherton on a motorbike, a BSA Bantom. I had to ride over to Manchester and get to the transport there.

(i) Cyril Knowles & Art Dempsey (ii) Cyril Knowles & Reg Ray

Butlin's, Jack Atherton, Bill Benny

In 1958 I went to work at Butlin’s Skegness on security.

(i) "Security Sam" (ii) Bill Benny with promoter Conrad Davis

Whilst there I met Jack Atherton at a show, and my career took off. He gave me lots of work with the top men of the time; Francis Sullivan, Hassan Alibey, Count Bartelli, Jonny Bates, Mike Marino, Jim Foy, Ernie Smith. He worked me as Bill Dunne. We all travelled the length of the country for a few pounds and expenses if we were lucky. Often we would get home about 5 30am and then have to go to work at seven am. "Man Mountain" Bill Benny was one of the top men at the time. He came out of retirement and wrestled two bouts with me. He said he would only come on with me, I don’t know why. We wrestled once in his club in Manchester, and once at The Embassy in Spark Brook.

Mike Marino

Fairground attractions

In the early sixties we were booked to wrestle in the Manchester sporting club alongside the future star singers of the 60s like Lita Rosa, Matt Monroe, Izzy Bonn, Cleo Laine, Michael Holliday and a few more who I don't at this moment remember. Sometimes we did two clubs a night and it was a mad rush to get to the second venue on time. We travelled with the fairground lads and worked on the many boxing booths with Mat Moran, Ronnie Taylor, Billy and Harry Woods, Mickey Kylie, Mel Reed and a wonderful lady by the name of Ma McGowan. The fairs ranged from 1 to 7 days. We slept in the big vans and the bosses’ wives fed us. If we were told we were staying at The Ringside Hotel, we knew that, that night we'd be sleeping under the ring, but it was warm and dry. If we put a good fight and went down well with the locals, even when we were taking on their mates, when the ref called time, they would throw coins into the ring. These were called nobbins so the more entertaining we were the better the nobbins.

Yorkshire clubs

There were lots of clubs in little Yorkshire towns. Cyril Knowles used to promote them. Often the bill included male/female tag matches. The wrestlers would alternate, sometimes with man vs woman, and the crowd loved it.

Tag team

Miners' Gala, Terence Ricardo, Jack Beaumont, Cliff Belshaw

I once wrestled at the Miners’ Gala in Barnsley. It was a huge event, with people coming from all over south Yorkshire. Once there was a tag match billed “Father & Son vs Grandfather & Grandson”. It was Jackie Pallo and son JJ vs Cyril Knowles and his grandson, Chris. Cyril was playing hell in the dressing room telling the lad not to call him “granddad”. I’ve heard that the lad has since died – I don’t know what happened. Miners’ union leader Arthur Scargill was there at the Gala, as was MP Tony Benn and other celebrities.

I remember travelling to Ulverston, in south Cumbria, for a show at the Coronation Hall, which was cancelled. The promoter was Frank Bell, from Barnoldswick, a schoolteacher. Incidentally, he was a heavyweight boxer, the only man ever to knock out Tommy Farr, who was famed for having been 14 rounds with Joe Louis. There was a man in our town who I taught to fight, Big Bruno Elrington. Bruno knocked Frank Bell out. Anyway, when Bell told us the Ulverston show was off, he was hesitant, and it looked like he wanted to ‘give us the knock’, but I insisted “This is our business, what we do for a living. We could have had work elsewhere, but we opted to take this job for you, so we want paying please”. He paid us, reluctantly. Would we have been all right if it had come to a scuffle with this big guy? Anyway, he paid and we came home, but on the way we had a drink in a pub called the Robin Hood in Belle Vue, Manchester. This was Terence Ricardo’s pub, Beaumont’s brother. There was Cliff Belshaw, Terence and Jack. Terence Ricardo was a very good wrestler. He once beat champion Billy Joyce in a money match in the Snake Pit gym where he trained. Quite a few in the business told me about Ricardo.

Bruno Elrington

Jim Foy & Billy Robinson, several matches in one day

There were some good lads around. Jim Foy used to train in the gym at Bolton, and Billy Robinson would travel there from Manchester to train with him. Billy was a fearsome man, he could go a bit, but he said “I go there, and there’s Jim Foy sat smoking his pipe all bloody day, and I can’t even get him off the floor”. There were some tough guys, him and Saxon Smith, Dominic Pye, some big, rough lads in those days. I worked a lot with Dominic in Blackpool, twice a week, Tuesday and Friday if I remember correctly. I would do Friday afternoon on the south pier, shoot over to Bolton, a place called Farnsworth, in a nightclub, then jump in a car to Manchester and work in a club the same night – 3 matches in the same day. When you were booth fighting, you could do 8 or 10 in a day. If you went over to Don Robinson, he always used to find you a couple of jobs to get you over there, maybe in Filey in the afternoon and down to Scarborough in the evening. Sometimes you’d go up to Filey and be first on there, and then jump in the car and straight down to wrestle in the last bout at the Spa Ballroom in Scarborough. This used to happen a lot. It made it worth your while going. If you had a couple of jobs, it was £20 in your pocket.

"Bouncer" work

Despite all the dashing around in the car, I never got a parking ticket - there was nothing on the road in those days. You could even drive through London and Park in Piccadilly. We once wrestled in Leicester Square, and parked the car there. I can’t remember the promoter, but there was a group on there in the same hall. We were on in between their shows. “Mungo Jerry” they were called, and they all came to our show. I was getting work as a doorman/bouncer. I did a show with the Bay City Rollers. They used to attract the youngsters. I used to stand on the stage with the band, so if anybody got past security on the floor, I had to deal with them on the top there. I got quite a bit of work like that, Tony Blackburn, PJ Proby, and many more I can’t remember now. They were good jobs. I never had much trouble. I never, ever struck anyone. I could always manage to get them out of the clubs peacefully. I wasn’t into knocking people about like some of them.

P.J.Proby, Art Dempsey, Gordon Kilmartin and a young Klondyke Bill

Buddy Ward and Ellesmere Port

Buddy Ward rings me every day, and we have a chat. He’s had a bit of publicity lately about him being the oldest wrestler. He’s the backbone of British Wrestling over there in Ellesmere Port. We started in Barnsley before them, but he’s been there a long time with the Ellesmere Port lads, and there are some good ‘uns from there, but a lot of them have moved from there now. Monty Swan, Brian Maxine, Steve Veidor, Bob Bell and Bertie Topham all came from their gym. We used to meet them a lot because we went over to Chester to work for a fella called Tommy Newton, and another called Taffy Jones. He ran a lot of shows in Cheshire. We’d also meet them in Lancashire, in the clubs in Manchester and over in Blackpool, but they didn’t come over to Yorkshire much, even though there was a lot of work in Yorkshire at that time.

(i) & (ii) Buddy Ward (iii) Lord Bertie Topham (iv) Monty Swan

(i) Brian Maxine. (ii) Steve Veidor.

Swedish Wrestling Tour

Steve Taylor, Alan Martin, Big Jake, Jack Land, Danny Lynch, Streiger, Eric Taylor & Dalibar Singh

As wrestling became more popular we began to go abroad to Sweden, Germany, the Middle East and to Singapore and India. I did a couple of trips to Sweden. On my second visit, part of the show was that anyone from the crowd could challenge us. You got a very good wage for it. It attracted some big lads. There were 8 of us went over, and 4 of us took up this challenge. I had a go with 3 of the Swedes, Jack Land (Karl von Kramer) had a go, Alan Martin and Eric Taylor did too. The rest of the lads on the bill (Danny Lynch, Hans Streiger, Dalibar Singh (British heavyweight champion) and Klondyke Jake) didn't join in, though - they probably didn't need the money as much as we did! We got in there, and it was bloody fantastic! We were on good wages to start with, so getting on and having a double wage, well, you couldn’t beat that. Let’s get in there and earn a few bob! I had four kids at home, so I had to make sure everything was all right for them These big lads had come to try themselves out. We ended up with the police in the hall on one occasion. One of our boys was being given a rough time, when the challenger got his eyes gouged and was nearly blinded, and the police were called, but nothing came of it. The lad was in a bad way, and they thought he was going to lose his sight. Thankfully, before we left Sweden we heard he was OK. That Swedish trip lasted a month. We started in September down on the Danish side in Malmo in our shirtsleeves, and the last job was in a place called Kiruna, 150 miles inside the Arctic Circle, freezing cold. When you stopped your car, there were meters up and down the town where you plugged it in to keep the engine warm. There were no snow ploughs to clear the roads; the car tyres had metal studs in them. It’s surprising how well they held the road. We came back by rail, from Kiruna to Gothenburg and they had no stoppages whatsoever, unlike British Rail!

(i) Sam drop kicking an opponent in Sweden. (ii) Jimmy Stockdale v Klondyke Bill in Sweden.

Tolerant employers

I worked for British Rail as a plate layer, starting with them on track maintenance. Then they gave me the job of getting rid of the refuse that we made, on a tip. I was the gaffer on this tip, and I could drive all the machines because at one time I’d worked for a demolition firm. That was when we were wrestling, a pal and I worked for this demolition firm, who would let us finish early and go wrestling. So I could handle the machines on the tip if we were a driver short. I was there for 24 years. The top man in Sheffield gave me unpaid leave to go over to wrestle in Pakistan, and also later to Singapore, so I was very lucky really. I worked for a steel erecting firm once. They let me go to Sweden for a month wrestling, and shortly after I came back I was offered another wrestling job in India. My employer wouldn’t stand for it any more, though, and said when you come back from India you’d better find yourself another job! I can’t blame him – I was taking liberties. I had to keep the money coming in. I’d never had any specialist skill, other than wrestling. I’d worked as a miner, from there to the steelworks, and had worked on building sites, hod-carrying. I loved the physical work – it was my way of keeping fit.

India and Pakistan

In 1971 at the time of the Iranian monarchy, Dangal, the Indian promoters, flew UK wrestlers from one venue to another in twin engine old Dakotas. The Pakistani villagers would walk for four days in gruelling heat to watch their idols wrestle. Before the Iranian monarchy, Dangal threw a party for the wrestlers at the Karachi International Hotel in Pakistan. The Bholu’s ate up every bit of food at the party, so the organisers got concerned and had to order more food for the rest of the guests.

(i) Madjit Akra, Sam, fellow Indian wrestler. (ii) & (iii) Sam receives the cup from Imam Bakhsh.
(iv) Sam with a couple of fans in Bombay.

(i) Poster. (ii) & (iii) Bombay 1967, with Indian champion and film star Dara Singh.
(iv) Sam in Pakistan wrestling Azam. The referee was Orig Williams.

Sam (masked) with Dara Singh.

There was a very good, powerful boy from Gilgit. He was a famous strongman. He pulled buses with his teeth and broke blocks over his head. He was sponsored by the Habib Bank of Pakistan Ltd. The Bholu’s were pretty strong guys too, but up until then hadn't had much competition, so when the strongman challenged them, they were afraid of him. The Bholu’s had heard of Sam, and came up with a plan, saying that the Gilgit strongman had to defeat Sam before he could fight them. They gave strict orders that Sam had to win and get him out of the way as soon as possible. Sam says, “For three rounds he threw me like a top, and did what he wanted with me. I couldn’t hold him. Alan Martin, a Dewsbury man, was in my corner, and at the end of round 3 he said the Bholu’s had sent word that ‘he’s making you look a fool’. I said there was nothing I could do, but they said you’ve got to get rid of him, and there’s a bonus for you when you do. I decided I was going to hit him on the chin. If he doesn’t go down, I’m going down. I went out for the fourth, and it was stuck up there – I couldn’t miss it – so I gave him a crack on the chin and he went down like a stone. I dropped on him and put a grovit on him and held him until he submitted. I’d have found it very difficult to catch him in a grovit if I hadn’t cheated, if I hadn’t stunned him. Anyhow, he submitted and the Bholu’s were delighted”. Didn’t the referee say anything about the punch? – “No, the ref wanted him out of the way. He was under orders from the Bholu’s – he’d not to win at all costs. You had to do some villainies. I later went on to beat Goga Pehalwan, and received the cup from Goga’s father Imam Bakhsh. The bout had been officially declared a draw, but the old man admitted that I had been the better wrestler, and awarded the cup to me. Imam Bakhsh can be seen in the photograph presenting the cup to me. He had been a great wrestler in his time, wrestling for the Raj at the Royal Palaces, and his brother Gama had been the best ever. The 90 year old Imam spoke to me through an interpreter, and I was very impressed with his vice-like grip and huge hands, like shovels.

Goga has Sam on the ropes

The best of the Bholu’s at the time was Akram. He was good. He could really move. I did a few bouts with him, and when he got naughty with me I just stuck my fist up, and although he couldn’t speak much English, he would say “No Boxing!” He didn’t fancy it on the chin. We were out there for about a month. I wrestled with three of the Bholu’s, and lost to Akram twice. He had beaten them all. In his last bout he lost to the great Japanese wrestler Inoki, a world beater. The Bholu’s manager, Faheemuddin Fehmi, says that the Bholu brothers soon departed and went on the tour of England on invitation of the British Wrestling promoter, Orig Williams. Mr Williams took them to Bradford where they wrestled Wild Angus Campbell and Wild Man of Borneo (Goonga Singh).

When the Pakistan war erupted in December 1971, the foreign wrestlers had to leave Pakistan abruptly because the Indians started bombing Karachi. The Bholu brothers got stuck in Bradford due to the Indo-Pakistan war.

Kuwait

(i) Sam in Kuwait with, amongst others, Carpentier and Wild Man of Borneo. (ii) Bholu Brothers in Kuwait.
(iii) Ringside in Kuwait. (iv) Poster in Kuwait.

Singapore, Malaysia

(i) Brian Ashbey and Kurt Stein in Malaysia. (ii) Sam, Ben Watovski, Chinese tailor, Vince Taylor.

Mighty Chang

(i)The Mighty Chang. (ii) Sam with a headlock on Chang. (iii) Mighty Chang, unknown, Sam. (iv) Chang is introduced.

Retirement, old friends

My wrestling career continued into the seventies when I retired. Sadly, the Junction Gym was gutted in 2004, but I have great memories of that and all my old wrestling pals. It would be nice to catch up with some of them, to see how they are and where they are. I've met some great mates in wrestling over the years but am sadly no longer in touch with a lot of them. Also quite a few are in that big wrestling ring in the sky, God bless 'em all: Arthur Betton, Harry Bennett, Brian Glover, Mal Kirk - R.I.P.

(i) Ernie Coates. (ii) Mal Kirk. (iii) Chopper? (iv) Bill Tunney, Jim Moser, 'Killer' Karl Kowalski.

(i) Judo (Chunky) Hayes. (ii) Ike Williams. (iii) Thundercloud. (iv) Robert Ratinsky.

(i) Ski Hi Lee. (ii) Chris Landos v Red Devil

Marriage to Sheila, her dialect poetry and charity work. Cruise holidays, Cirque du Soleil

2010 is our 50th Wedding Anniversary. My wife Sheila and I have four grown-up children. Sheila likes to write dialect poetry, and a collection of her poems has been published. Sheila used to give recitals of her poetry in hospices and retirement homes in and around Barnsley for charity. You can see her website at http://sheila798.tripod.com/

Sheila and I have been on a lot of cruise-ship holidays. We would fly out to the Dominican Republic and have a fortnight cruising around the Caribbean. We came back transatlantic to Palma, Mallorca. There were some good shows on the ship. Sheila did a couple of shows giving monologues of her dialect poetry, and filled the theatre twice, on separate trips. We got to know the artistic director on the ship, Bruce Maher, very well, and have kept in touch with him since. He’s now the artistic director for the world-famous Cirque du Soleil, on a worldwide tour, which appeared in Sheffield this year (2010).He had four tickets for us, and the show was out of this world. If there were any good shows on the ship, Sheila was always invited into the dressing room by Bruce. I felt a bit shy about going in, but they would drag me in there with them. We had about ten trips with him, and have kept in touch through emails. He’s a giant of a man, but very endearing and he really cares about people. A lot of the cast are from England, and are visiting friends and family while they’re over here. Sheila is even still in touch with the ship’s captain’s wife. Every time we were on that ship, we dined at the captain’s table. We used to stroll into the captain’s cabin just like going home. As soon as we boarded, Sheila would ring him from the cabin. If he had prior warning that we were on the guest list, there was always a big bunch of flowers to greet us in the cabin. The captain was Greek, and his wife was from the Bahamas. Her father was a government official, a very important man. Sadly, they’ve since parted, and she’s an estate agent in the Bahamas. Niko is no doubt still sailing the seas!

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A life on the ocean wave: Sam, Sheila and friends

Sam with eldest daughter Joanna.

Get in touch!

It would be nice to hear from those of my old wrestling companions who are left, or even their families. I was 77 in March 2010, so don't wait too long, please get in touch. I can be contacted on shesamsilver@hotmail.co.uk

Many thanks to Sam and Sheila Betts for the photographs and information.


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