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Old Time Class and a Clobber
Rough-house Alf was the heavier, the rougher and the more villainous of the Cadman brothers who were well known throughout northern rings for the best part of thirty years. Alf was a blatant rule-bender who could enrage fans with his illegal moves while Ken had a more subtle style of villainy.
Taking an interest in wrestling from fifteen years of age, Alf trained as an amateur at Manchester YMCA. Not uncommon in wrestling circles Alf’s entry to the professional ranks resulted from a quirk of fate. This is the story as it was told. 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! That’s how the story goes. You can decide how true it is.
Shortly after his first bout Alf was called–up to the Royal Navy. He became a full time professional in 1946 and was to remain so 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’Donnell was followed by a more enduring and successful teaming with little brother Ken.
Enthusiast Dave Sutherland remembers: “Alf was a regular at the St James Hall for many years and I was to see him on one of my early visits in 1963, and many times after that. Alf was totally uncompromising in the ring and he could wrestle anywhere on the bill and give good value.”
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.
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 when he ran training sessions for aspiring and new professional wrestlers at the Wryton Stadium in Bolton on Sunday mornings.
Alf broke his neck during a bout 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 he 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 would 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 number plate 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: 5/3/2019
Reviewed 25/06/2022
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