Have A Good Week... Till Next Week by John Lister

Author:John Lister [Lister, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2018-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

Len Ironside

From an early age, the writing was on the wall for Len Ironside’s lifetime fascination with the wrestling business. Literally so as his uncle was a signwriter whose weekly tasks included updating the display board at the Aberdeen Music Hall each week with details of the main event contest at the next wrestling show.

The perks of the job included free entry to the shows, with the pre-teen Ironside allowed in without charge as long as he sat on his uncle’s shoulders. The only downside to this deal was that said uncle would usually enjoy a few interval drinks and be unable to continue the arrangement for the second half of the show.

Having decided he wanted to be a pro but with no obvious road in to business, Ironside later began hitchhiking from Aberdeen to Perth each weekend for amateur training. He competed in a series of amateur bouts as well as taking part in various Highland Games open competitions.

The amateur training led to a meeting with Scottish lightweight legend and perennial world champion George Kidd who, along with Joe D’Orazio, showed him the professional ropes. When Kidd deemed Ironside experienced enough to earn his recommendation, he helped set up a debut bout in 1973 at the Eldorado Stadium in Edinburgh under promoter Max Crabtree.

Ironside recalls being “thrilled to bits” to debut at arguably the most prestigious venue in Scotland, though in his bout with Dave Ramsden he struggled to win the crowd’s approval. That was partly because he adopted an aggressive style but largely because, despite being from Yorkshire, Ramsden was part of the Eldorado All-Stars. A Crabtree creation, this was the wrestling equivalent of a ‘home team’ that would take on outsiders in a series of matches across an evening, creating a partisan and often overheated atmosphere.

While the crowd reaction wasn’t initially warm, Ironside impressed his peers enough to be invited back and start a series of regular appearances on the Scottish circuit, this time in a more heroic role. As one of the shorter wrestlers on the scene, he found that catchweight bouts against heavier villain opponents worked better for crowd appeal.

“Speed was the thing I used, and I loved to run rings round them and it was easier if they were bigger and heavier when I'm nipping through their legs, jumping over their backs, tripping them up.” Indeed, even with an unfamiliar crowd, having a size difference meant “they would look and say right away ‘We know who we support there.’”

Although he wrestled regularly, Ironside maintained a day job working on benefits management for what was then the Department of Health and Social Security. It was a deliberate decision based on the experience of others. “I had known about Clayton Thompson who when he first wrestled broke his leg in his first match and he couldn't wrestle for months. Nobody paid him, he'd no income, and nobody insured wrestlers in those days. So I thought ‘Right, I'll keep on a job so if anything does happen, I've got a fall-back position.

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