Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks

Saturday afternoon in the late 60's and all eyes were on World of Sport on ITV. Dickie Davis' close cropped moustache would quiver as he announced 'and now Wrestling from Eltham Baths' or some such venue where the swimming pool had been temporarily boarded over for the afternoon. The screen would dim and the theme tune would strike up, a suitable compromise between stadium rock and showbiz razzamatazz. For this is what is it was, a pumped up theatrical experience. We all knew it was staged. Didn't we?
While televised wrestling continued to be the mainstay of the commercial channel's weekend sport output, by the mid 70's the public wanted something extra. The time was ripe for larger than life characters in the ring and they didn't come much bigger than Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks.
Big Daddy started life as Shirley Grabtree and started wrestling in 1952 as a blue-eyed adonis. However he quit the ring in 1966 after one too many fall outs with other wrestlers. Crabtree returned to professional wrestling in 1972 and, two years later, emerged as Big Daddy but it wasn't til 1975 when he teamed up with Giant Haystacks as a tag team that he became a superstar. The pair started to dominate the circuit as the baddies everyone loved to boo. However, by 1977 they had split up acrimoniously and Crabtree reverted to being the goodie in the ring, especially when he was pitted against villianous Haystacks.
Giant Haystacks was born Martin Ruane, began wrestling in 1967 and quickly morphed in Giant Haystacks. Teaming up with Big Daddy cemented his reputation as a heavyweight bully in the ring. When the two dissolved their tag team they became adverseries and often ended up battling each other in Battles of the Giants.
Big Daddy vs Giant Haystacks at Upstairs and The Western is a rumbustious romp through the years of televised professional wrestling pegged on the life of Shirley Crabtree and his family. A myriad of characters flash before your very eyes courtesy of the talented pair of actors, Ross Gurney-Randall and David Mounfield. The various chancers, movers and shakers are portrayed with a minimum of props but an array of accents. Poking fun at the whole charade that is the sport, this play fills in the life of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks away from the ring with pathos and humour. The laughs start in the first minute and don't let up til the finale.
A great night out for those of us around in the 60's and 70's but an education for the youngsters

First published in Western Gazette 
© Paul Towers 14/2/2014