devonwrestler's blog

During a trip to London back in March this year I managed to get along to Queens Park Wrestlers. As a Google seach will reveal, this is an informal wrestling evening held once each month in Islington, just to the north of the most central part of London. The premises are, as I understand it, mainly intended as a place where gay and bi men can both socialise and enjoy sex, however the facilities are also well suited to smallish group meetings for competitive wrestling or for wrestling instruction. There is a wrestling mat and adjacent seating space for at least a couple of dozen people spectating or waiting their turn to wrestle. The mat area was well lit. Water and soft drinks were available which is good since competitive wrestling can be dehydrating. Considering the normal usage of the venue, it is perhaps not surprising that the venue is also suitable for the kind of apres wrestling activities some of us like to indulge in, there are small shady holes where you can do these activities in private, or more open spaces if that is your preference. There are also some video films running that may help you get started if you really have no idea how to go about those activities!

If you look at the QPW webpage you will probably imagine that these are quite formally structured wrestling evenings - the web page talks about a special set of wrestling rules and competitive wrestling with timed rounds, referrees, judges etc. However, at least on the one evening that I have managed to get along, the reality was a lot less organised than implied by the webpage. On the evening I was there, five people turned up prepared to wrestle, and about the same number came as spectators, but three of the spectators soon seemed to lose interest and disappeared into the night. A couple of helpful guys on the door welcomed us and collected the modest entrance fee, then put our cloths safe once we had striped to trunks or shorts or whatever. From then on we were left to do whatever we felt appropriate. The wrestlers included myself and two other guys I knew from the 'Speedo Wrestlers' meetings, plus a guy who had never ever wrestled before and a guy who had done very little. By chance, the three of us who had done at least some wrestling were all roughly the same kind of size and strength and I had some good competitive rounds with the other two as well as some very gentle wrestling with the beginners. One of the experienced guys was pretty knowledgeable about wrestling technique and he gave tuition to the beginners, using me as a 'rag doll' for some of the demonstrations. I think the two novices may have been somewhat anxious and one said at the beginining that he was worried about getting injured. I hope that they enjoyed the experience and that we managed to show them that submission wrestling can be competitive without being unduly dangerous.

I certainly enjoyed the evening that I went along to QPW, and I didnt mind the rather small attendance. I have to caveat that by saying that I have no idea whether or not that particular evening was typical of all the QPW evenings. I remember that some months ago I wrote in glowing terms about a wrestling evening at the Eagle venue but I have subsequently heard that the evening I attended may not have been typical of some of the more recent evenings. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with the more recent evenings, maybe they are just different in style, I couldnt really comment further without more personel experience.

How well these kind of meetings work out does depend on who happens to turn up and how the wrestling develops during the evening. Its not going to be much of a wrestling evening if the mats remain unused for most of the time. It does help if wrestlers are willing to challenge each other to get on the mats, even if that means wrestling with people they dont know from outside the meeting. Also helps if people are willing to help beginners get into it, either by giving them tuition or by giving them suitable introductory matches.

Incidentally, for those that are not aware of it, the 'Speedo Wrestlers' meetings that I referred to above are no longer happening, at least not for the foreseeable future.