C: Alf Cadman & Ken Cadman
Old Time Class
and a Clobber
Rough House
Alf Cadman
Crafty Ken Cadman
Alf Cadman
Rough-house
Alf was the heavier, the rougher and the more villainous of the Cadman
brothers who were regulars throughout northern rings for the best part
of thirty years.
Alf was a rule-bending Lancashire heavyweight from Bolton. He
could enrage fans with his blatant illegal moves. Taking an interest in
wrestling from fifteen years of age, training as an amateur at
Manchester YMCA,.
Not
uncommon in wrestling circles Alf's entry to the professional ranks
resulted from a quirk of fate. He was an amateur at the Manchester YMCA
when he went to watch a professional show. When one of the wrestlers
failed to turn up Alf was asked to step in by the promoter. The MC
thought Alf's surname, Edge, was unsuitable for a pro wrestler and
quickly re-named him Alf Cadman, after boxer Joe Cadman who had once
given the MC a good beating!
Shortly
after his first bout Alf was called –up to the Royal Navy, and became a
full time professional in 1946. He was to wrestle as a full time
professional for the next twenty years. He left Joint promotions in 1968
and spent the following three years working the independent promoters
halls of the north.
Always
a popular (or unpopular) figure Alf met the best in the business, and
although he could point to wins over Eric Taylor, Alan Garfield Joe
Cornelius and Billy Joyce he always remained on the edge of those who
were considered to be at the very top. A tag partnership with Ireland’s
Frank O’Donell was followed by a more enduring and successful teaming
with little brother Ken.
Fellow wrestler and long time friend Eddie Rose adds his memories of Alf Cadman.
Alf
Cadman was a Salford lad who later lived in Bury. His wrestling career
started, like so many wrestlers in the Manchester area, at the YMCA
where his potential was spotted by professional promoter, Arthur Wright
of Wryton Promotions.
Alf's
career started at Hanley when he was in his late teens, a career that
was interrupted by the Second World War but continued for the next
thirty-odd years. Alf became one of the best professional wrestlers to
ever grace the British wrestling scene and a browse through his record
shows that he wrestled just about every wrestler from welterweight up to
heavyweight.
His
wrestling was not confined to the UK and remembered with pleasure a tour
of India in the '40s with the legendary Bert Assirati. Alf never
wrestled Assirati but studied him at close quarters and rated him as one
of the great heavyweights alongside Billy Joyce and Bill Robinson.
Ken Cadman
The younger of the Edge brothers, Ken dropped the family name when he
followed big brother Alf into the professional ring.
Ken's style of
villainy was just that bit more sophisticated than his brother and
earned him the nickname Crafty Ken. Like his brother Ken was a regular
worker and well known figure in the post war wrestling scene, but always
seemed overshadowed by big brother.
Ken’s wrestling career was severely
hindered by a serious injury which resulted in an early retirement for
most of the 1950s. Ken returned to the ring in 1960 and although he did
wrestle in singles matches found his greatest success in tag
partnership as one half of the Crafty Cadmans.
His tag partnership with
brother Alf was one of the most successful tag pairings of the 1960s,
taking on the villains role against popular pairings such as the White
Eagles, the Royal Brothers and the Stewarts. For a few years Ken was the
regular trainer at the Wryton Stadium, Bolton, Sunday morning training
sessions for professional wannabees, and was responsible for creating a
number of stylish 1970s professionals.
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Alf
was a frequent traveller and wrestled in Germany, Austria, France and
Spain regularly, often accompanied by his wife, Betty, an
ex-professional dancer.
I
only got to know Alf towards the end of his career, appearing on a
number of shows with him. One of the great influences in my career was
Alf's brother, Ken who ran training sessions for aspiring and new
professional wrestlers at the Wryton Stadium in Bolton on Sunday
mornings.
Ken, along
with Jack Atherton, helped train and polish so many of the wrestlers who
came to the fore in the late'60s and '70s like Paul Mitchell, Barry
Ryan, Johnny South, Paul Duval.Alf and Ken formed a famous tag team who
battled the likes of the Royals, the Cortez Brothers, Hell's Angels, The
Dangermen, Dennison & Cooper and other top tag teams the length and
breadth of the UK. They always gave top value to the audiences.
Alf
broke his neck during about with Billy Howes and then drove home from
Crewe in agony and it was a couple of days later that the extent of the
damage was discovered. The consultant told Alf that he had been a
millimetre away from almost total paralysis and even death.One wrong
move would have sheared through his spinal cord with dire results.
Alf
then became a successful bookie with premises in Sunnybank, Bury, a
business in which he excelled and which he enjoyed. He became a member
of the local business community.
After
a gap of many years, I encountered Alf again at Silver's Gym in Bury
where he was a regular attender with his son who was recovering from a
road accident. In his mid-seventies, he worked out energetically and
joked that he was still waiting for a phone call from Wrytons with a sub
job.
One of his great
qualities was his quiet sense of humour and whenever we met he would
soon have us both laughing with a wrestling anecdote. Ray Plunkett found
a whole ream of Alf's wrestling bouts and results. I used to take them
round to Alf and we've sit on the settee as he went through the lists
commenting on this bout and that: Bartelli, Jack Beaumont, Billy Howes,
Mike Marino, Ernie Riley, Dennis Mitchell, Jack Atherton, Tony Charles;
the names rolled out like a Who's Who of wrestling and gave Alf endless
hours of enjoyment. The records now remain with Betty and the family as
treasured memories of a great career.
Alf
passed away in 2012. I miss seeing his car with its ALF numberplate
motoring around Bury but not as much as the wrestling community and his
family will miss him. Alf was a great wrestler and an outstanding man
and will be long remembered.
Page revised: 5/3/19