Dave Ickringill

A former rugby league and water polo player, Yorkshire-born Dave Ickringill took up wrestling as a 16-year-old. When he was 19, he went to the 1950 British Empire Games at Auckland where he finished fourth, and last, in the lightweight class after losing all four bouts. He also failed to win a bout when the Games were held in Cardiff eight years later. Ickringill was a reserve for the 1952 Olympics, and the following year he won the national lightweight title before adding the welterweight crown in 1955.

A Manchester-based policeman, Ickringill went on the 1955 two-month wrestling tour of South Africa as part of the six-man team comprising three British and three Swedish wrestlers. One of Ickringill’s best performances was in beating the world No.2 Tofigh Jahanbakht of Iran on his way to reaching the 1961 national championship middleweight final.

Ickringill won the National Police Championship in 1964 and that same year became the first Briton to win at the European Police Championships when he was the welterweight champion. Hardly surprising, Ickringill won the Lancashire Constabulary Sportsman of the Year Award for 1964. Ickringill rose to the rank of inspector before retiring in 1984 after 30 years service. After retirement he took up painting, having been to Keighley Art College as a youngster. In 1992 he saw some of his work exhibited in his hometown of Barnoldswick.