The Northern Cartel : Spenna Nostra - mixed martial arts training

The art of Lancashire Wrestling is a shadow of it’s former self, as the insurgence of BJJ and other arts overtake this once feared art that held court in the rough and tough mining towns such as Wigan and Atherton over forty years ago; after a back breaking day ‘deaun t’pit’ (down the pit) the local strongmen would take a quick shower and head off to the world famous Snake Pit and wrestle the night away throwing their opponents with cross buttocks and flying mares, before ‘getting the knock’ with a brutal face bar or painful knee crush –fighting off your back was a definite no-no and was to be avoided at all costs

The days of Adidas wrestling boots, crash mats and knee pads were a distant memory when these guys trained and it was a case of first one to the baths gets the warm water and the stragglers would get the cold scum-lined water for their troubles; these men were hard and tough and went by the names of Big Jim Foy, Bert Asarati, Roy Wood, Billy and Ernie Riley, Trevor Roberts, Bert Owen, Billy Joyce, Bill Robinson to name a few and struck fear and pain into the hearts and bodies of their opponents.

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Andrea & Roy Wood

The original Snake Pit in Whelley in Wigan is now long and gone, yet the spirit of the club and it’s members still burns bright at Apsull Wrestling Club, thanks to the efforts of Roy Wood and his daughter Andrea; the club has a thriving junior amateur wrestling section, who regularly compete both in the UK and abroad (the club are preparing for a tour of South Africa in 2004) and if one is lucky enough to catch Roy in the mood, a helping of painful Lancashire wrestling submissions are available.

Cartel v Snakepit

Cartel members Ian Butlin, Quashi and Carl Fisher made the journey to the unassuming location off the main road into Wigan town centre, where the wrestling club lies, slap bang next to allotments and after training with the ‘juniors’ one comes to the conclusion that the allotments are where these youngsters are made. After talking to Andrea on the phone, we were invited to the club and join in a class - ‘By the way,’ said Andrea, ‘ the class is mainly teenagers, does that bother you?’ Teenagers, no problem we all thought, as we headed to the club; entering the club we were met by Japanese wrestler Osamu Matsunami, a Tokyo native and regular visitor to Roy’s club since 1993. Whilst living in Tokyo, Osamu taught Lancashire wrestling at Bill Robinson’s gym and now Osamu lives in Kyoto and trains at the Seikei – Kan dojo, which is home to pro fighters such as Koji Okuyama and Tomoyuki Fukami, who regularly fight on shows such as DEEP and Pancrase in Japan.

After introducing Roy to the lads, Roy split the session into two sections, one session of Lancashire and the last session amateur wrestling and with that Osamu stayed in the middle and wrestled the three of us. Given that the idea of this game is not to fall to the back, it made for an interesting session indeed, how not to go to the back after 4 years of fighting from the back. The pace of Lancashire wrestling is fast and furious and Osamu is a very capable wrestler and as predicted, face bars, neck cranks and general joint destruction ensued; as soon as the wrestler went to his back the fight went back to standing, the idea being to lie face down on the mat and defend - rather hard to do when you’re head’s twisted beyond normal range of motion.

After 10 minute’s each solid wrestling we were allowed to rest and thus our first true Lancashire wrestle came to an end - back to the juniors. Many people have entered the club and been put off by what at first seems an unfair weight advantage and I could see Ian and Quashi sensing an easy victory (as did I, if I am to be honest) – first mistake. The last session of wrestling was to be under full amateur rules, the winner by a fall or pin, again no fighting from the back, no triangles, leg locks and chokes. In short all the things we were good at we weren’t allowed to use, very fair.

As stated earlier, the allotments seemed the ideal home for some of the guys – they must have been grown there, as we tangled with a number of juniors much taller and heaver than us three adults and after a thorough beat down on the mats, it was revealed that the tallest and biggest guy, Tom Darby was only fourteen years old! Oh and that all the other ‘juniors’ we wrestled were all British champions, so at least we had that excuse to use back at our gym. All the juniors are a credit to both Roy and Andrea who train them hard and the results show, plus it’s a humbling experience to have it handed to you by some one old enough to be your son.

Training nights are Monday through Thursday and classes start at 6 pm most nights Wednesdays at 7pm and last just over an hour, an hour of hard wrestling and a great CV workout has yet to be found. The price for all this mat mayhem I hear you cry? A wallet lightening two pounds sterling; they may say it’s grim up north, but it’s value for money as well, as where else can you train one of the most feared wrestling styles for next to nothing, treading the same path as the likes of the Riley brothers and Billy Joyce? The club is packed with framed photos of a bygone era and if you listen hard enough, you can still hear the ghosts of these famous wrestlers, taking to the mats, looking for ‘the knock’.

Anyone interested in training at Roy’s club can contact Carl Fisher for directions or to meet up beforehand, off the M61, junction 6 (Reebok stadium turn off) – the offer is open all grapplers – kippa37@hotmail.com