Wigan wrestling legend's pride at King's honour

Roy Wood is now the proud recipient of a British Empire Medal, bestowed by the King in his new year's list and now presented to him Diane Hawkins, The Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, in a ceremony at the Monastery of St Francis and Gorton Trust.

Still coaching at 81 at Aspull Olympic Wrestling Club, the Aspull great-grandfather was given the BEM for services to wrestling and young people.

Roy reopened Riley’s Club – where he had trained and later to be known as Aspull Olympic Wrestling Club - on a voluntary basis and welcomed people to train for free.

He was also instrumental in founding and reviving Billy Riley’s Snake Pit: a wrestling club dedicated to developing and preserving the style of catch as catch can wrestling: a sport that was invented by Wigan miners.

And while Roy retired from bouts himself 20 years ago and sold of the businesses he had as a day job, there are no signs of his stepping away from his sporting passion.

He said: “I am very proud of this but really I’ve been given a medal for doing something I enjoy.

"I can’t see any reason to stop. I love it and will keep going. My daughter Andrea is also heavily involved in the club and she will carry on the torch when the time comes.”

So how did it all start?

Roy said: “I was about 15 years old and I knew Riley’s gym was down the bottom of Pike Street in Whelley and decided I’d go along and see what was going on.

"I was an average size but most of the people there were men and for two years I got hammered. When I asked guys for a wrestle they looked at me as if I was insulting them.

"But I was an apprentice moulder for Leyland Motors and that was a very physical job which built up my strength. I also learnt from being clobbered by the older guys and eventually got even.”

Roy advanced so much that eventually he turned professional and topped the bill at both Blackpool and Belle Vue: the North West’s premier venues for wrestling. He fought the wrestler-actor Brian Glover (who went by the name Leon Arras purely because a promoter told him that was who he was from now on when a French wrestler of that name failed to turn up for the fight and he didn’t want the audience to know); and was also in a tag team called The White Eagles after joining forces with wrestler John Eagle (real name Roy Boyd).

But he didn’t win the fame that other wrestlers enjoyed because he didn’t give up his day job and so wasn’t willing or able to travel to London for the biggest bouts.

Earning £2.66 as a Leyland Motors apprentice though was handsomely topped up by the £8 he would earn for one bout.

Roy stopped wrestling himself more than 20 years ago, but his passion for coaching remains undimmed and has been truly international.

He began more than 45 years ago when there was a danger of catch wrestling dying out and at a time when there was no Olympic wrestling club in Wigan for youngsters.

So he re-opened the club where he had trained as a boy and began coaching local children on a voluntary basis.

When the authorities spotted the state of the place on a documentary in which Roy featured 20-plus years ago and had the place knocked down, he bought Aspull Youth Club and transferred operations there instead.

He trains the youngsters in freestyle wrestling but the adults in catch wrestling and it has caught on around the world. He has just brought a team back from the United States and there was also recently a wrestling contest at The Edge at Wigan Pier involving several countries including Australia’s team who had just returned from the Olympics in France.

Roy is also a big name in Japan, having been invited over there to coach “proper wrestling” to a nation fed up with the hammy glitch of American bouts.

Before London 2012 Roy became the first British person to coach a foreign Olympic team when he trained Guam wrestler Maria Dunn. He would also be given the honour of being one of the bearers when the Olympic torch was carried through Wigan borough in the run-up to the games.

As a day job Roy for years ran a cigarette machine business which he eventually sold to Rothmans and then a bar supplies company which was sold on retirement.

He was also tackling coach at St Helens RL for six years and also worked with Wigan Warriors.

But the wrestling coaching continues unabated.

Roy said: “Why would I? I love it so much. We have 20 or more kids turning up to do freestyle wrestling on a Wednesday evening alone.

"And there is no harm in keeping a tradition going. Billy Riley said that when you put your arm down a Wigan coal mine you’d either pull out a rugby player or a wrestler. Both sports were a means of escaping the mines.

"The rugby legend Jim Sullivan and Billy Riley both died in the same week and it's nice to see in Wigan that they are both recognised with roads round the corner from each other: Sullivan Way and Riley Square.

"Catch wrestling is all over the world now: the US, Japan, Denmark, Sweden and Brazil all have Snake Pits now. We can all do our bit to keep it going.”

In the citation read out before he received his medal, it says that he consistently removed barriers to training through a discreet scholarship scheme which allows people to train for free if they can’t afford it.

It adds: “He has been committed and dedicated to finding opportunities to travel and compete at national and international level for the club, the regional team and the national team as they feed into the British Wrestling Programme and enabling wrestlers to compete in the Commonwealth Games.

"Any income that has been received has been invested to develop the sport and to preserve the history of wrestling locally, by documenting techniques in manual format, podcast interviews, DVD documentation and through supporting local historians to write books about its heritage.

"Roy also bought title belts belonging to his former teammates that were being sold off; collected and purchased books and magazines and anything wrestling-related.”