Non-TickleFighting news - 1982 (gif).

Welsh former TickleFighter DI BLOOM experienced a different type of combat sport 4 years affter her retirement. Here, she presents her account of her adventures in Iceland exclusively to readers of "This Sporting Wife".

(Published in "This Sporting Wife", 1982 review and 1983 New Year Speciai Edition.)

"I reluctantly retired from TickleFighting in 1978. I didn't want to, but I was 37 years old and my timing and stamina weren't there any more. On Boxing Day 1977 I'd lost to Sarah Hampton [a TickleFighter from Cumbria] in a bottomless underwear bout at a lesbian centre in the North East of England, and she beat me by stimulating me to a tickle orgasm. I remember writhing on the mat, helpless with pleasure, and a packed audience roaring with approval - and I felt totally humiliated. All these woman, heartily cheering at the sight of my bare buttocks quivering as my half-naked body squirmed frantically on the floor... My bare toes were curling, not only with passion but also with embarrassment. After the match, we were sitting in our shared changing room after we'd showered and I told Sarah I was giving it up. She tried to convince me otherwise, but I felt so tired...

However, I couldn't quit TickleFighting immediately, as it had already been arranged that I should take on [South Yorkshire girl] Adrienne Leigh the following April at Colwyn Bay. Adrienne was a teenager at the time, but despite our age difference we had become good friends. Like many youngsters, she was having difficulty securing TickleFight matches, so I felt honour-bound to fulfil our contest before I announced that I was packing the game in. I almost changed my mind a month before our bout, though, when the UKTFU [United Kingdom TickleFighting Union, the governing body of the sport in Great Britain] declared that my TickleFight against Adrienne was to be an all-nude affair. As a woman in my late thirties I was bound to feel self-conscious about that.

Anyway, the match took place and Adrienne won by two submissions to nil after tickling the daylights out of my bare body and turning me into a naked, wriggling, laughing heap. I announced my retirement immediately afterwards, although Adrienne - like Sarah Hampton before her - attempted to persuade me to continue my career in TickleFighting.

As you probably know, TickleFighters in Wales receive a decent lump-sum payout when they retire to acknowledge their contribution to Welsh sport, although this is granted on condition that they don't return to TickleFighting. I'm a qualified scuba diver and I managed to get a job as a trainer at a sub-aqua club at Porthcawl, so I was doing OK financially.

Then Margaret Thatcher took power, and there were employment redundancies all over Britain except in London and the south east of England. I'd already been given a few disciplinary warnings by the club committee because I irritated them by going against their strict diving regulations - I hate wearing fins and preferred to go barefoot during demonstrations to prospective members - so when they were looking to get rid of staff just after Christmas 1981 I was the first on their list.

After three months living on unemployment benefit, which was no fun at all, I heard through the grapevine that an agency was looking for 'mature ladies from Europe with wrestling experience' to work in Iceland. When I looked into this I found that an entertainment company was forming a troupe of eight women in their 40s to take part in all-in wrestling matches against each other at Selfoss, a town of around 10,000 people. Although I'd inevitably gained weight since 1978 I was still reasonably fit - my exhaustion in the latter stages of my TickleFighting career had largely been caused by my constant forced laughter when I was being tickled - and the wages and accommodation looked fine, so I applied, making it quite clear that I had never been a 'wrestler' per se. Nevertheless, after a interview at Cardiff (where I showed a video of my win against Leanne Leece back in 1971) I was accepted and was soon on my way to Keflavik International Airport.

Of my fellow competitors, there were three from Denmark, two from West Germany, one from Norway and one from Britain - an English woman named Mel Mason. All had experience in regular all-in women's wrestling apart from myself and one of the Germans, Helga Torson, a 6 feet 3 inches blonde judo brown belt who had defected from the East. (As it turned out, Helga was the clumsiest and least effective performer of our group.) The idea was that each Saturday evening between June and September we would partake in a 'knock-out tournament' comprising of seven matches in total - four matches in the first round from which the victors would go through to the two semi-finals, the winners of which would of course meet in the final. This meant that the finalists would have participated in three matches in one night, but there were match-by-match bonuses that encouraged the wrestlers to do so. A single pin-fall (with a count of three) or submission won a match, and the opponents in the first round and the semi were decided by a random draw. In case of injury, our two Icelandic coaches stood by to deputise. 

On the subject of our coaches - they put us through intensive training, especially Helga and I who had no history of the style of wrestling that would be expected of us. One of the major problems I had was with the 'uniform' (for want of a better word). We were all assigned different coloured one-piece swimming costumes in which to train and perform - and I had no trouble with that - but we also had to wear big, clumsy boots. For someone like me, who loves going barefoot, it was like wearing lead weights on my lower legs. I pleaded with the organisers to allow me to perform without them - but no, they were wrestling boots and we were involved in genuinely competitive wrestling, so consequently we were required to look the part. Additionally, alone of the competitors I was told I would have initially have to wear bulky knee-pads because a physical examination had shown a suspected weakness in my lower joints. (A false alarm, as it turned out). I found all this irritating.

Otherwise, it has to be said that the promoters were most accommodating. Sensibly, they'd allocated our living quarters - which were extremely agreeable - on the basis of nationality where possible, so I shared my flat with my fellow-UK contestant Mel Mason. She's a year younger than me and we got on well together, often recounting our memories of battles in our respective sports back in Britain. Like me, she was a genuine redhead - we discovered that about each other on the first occasion we shared the sauna and whirlpool bath in the flat, and we had a short, giggly conversation about it! - but her near "pixie-cut" hairstyle contrasted with my longer locks.

Came the evening of the inaugural evening of the tournament, and the audience filled the venue. As luck would have it, I was paired with Helga Torson - the giant German - in the first round, and although she towered over me in an intimidating way I soon perceived her limitations and manoeuvred her into a Boston Crab to which she had to submit.

Mel had also won her initial match after defeating the Norwegian Elin Tollan by a pin-fall after a tough struggle in the first round, and we were then drawn together for an all-British semi-final. 

I fancied my chances of creating something of an upset, but as soon as the contest started Mel was straight out of her corner and, burdened by my leg encumbrances, I was unable to react effectively as she scurried bewilderingly between my legs, crashed me on to my back and held me powerless in a folding press while surreptitiously and ruthlessly tickling my upper body with her left hand.

I'd forgotten how unbearable tickle torture could be. Screaming with helpless laughter while bicycling my legs and feet furiously in a desperate but futile attempt to escape the extreme torment [ see clip above],  I was just about to submit when the referee completed a three-second count - which meant I had conceded a pin-fall and would have lost the bout anyway.

I scrambled to my knees with an expression of humiliation and fury. If I hadn't told Mel about how I'd suffered during the latter stages of my TickleFighting days then she wouldn't have tempted to tickle me! I felt betrayed, and things were pretty frosty between us for a time; I even eschewed our nude sessions in the whirlpool bath, which we enjoyed greatly, in case I was tempted to try to drown her! It wasn't until the morning of our next Saturday session that the bad feelings had completely dissipated.

As regards that first-ever Female Icelandic All-in Wrestling Tournament - Mel was beaten in the final by a Dane, thus setting a precedent, since nearly all the subsequent competitions were won by one of the trio of participants from Denmark. (When West German Rhoda Punzel emerged triumphant from the final on 28th August it was headline news on the back pages of one Reykjavík Sunday newspaper.)

After its conclusion in September the Selfossmótaröðin í glímu (Selfoss Wrestling Series), as it became known, was judged to have been a great success. However, it's debatable whether another season of this competition will take place in Iceland after an incident in the penultimate tournament. Five minutes before it began, Mel sprained her ankle while warming up; and, as arranged, one of the Icelandic wrestling coaches, 35-year-old Sanna Haraldsdóttir, took her place. Due to the last-minute nature of Mel's withdrawal, no suitable equipment was available for Sanna and she was forced to enter the ring with a swimsuit which was two sizes too small for her; and since there were no boots in her size at hand she had to compete barefoot. (How I envied her for that!) Her opponent was Helga Torson, who was getting visibly vexed as the weeks went by with the 'jobber' status that had been thrust upon her. (She hadn't won a single bout, and by this stage being drawn against her was regarded as a 'bye' or 'walk-over' to the semi-final by the other wrestlers.) Facing a certain defeat against an experienced and qualified wrestling coach who was six years younger than herself, Helga's frustration boiled over and she ripped the undersized costume off Sanna's body, leaving her completely naked. As Helga stepped back to admire her handiwork and before the stunned referee could react, Sanna overcame her embarrassment and manipulated the German into a brutal ceiling hold. Her submission was inevitable.

It was all very entertaining for the audience, who roared their approval, but the Icelandic authorities were far less appreciative! Although the final 1982 competition was allowed to go ahead due to the advanced ticket sales, permission has yet to be given by the Althing (Iceland's parliament) to stage a series in 1983."

ABOVE - Di Bloom embraced her new career as a diver (without fins - or even a swimsuit) in 1978. 

ABOVE - Di Bloom's last TickleFight - an all-nude bout against Adrienne Leigh at Colwyn Bay on 29th April 1978.

 ABOVE - Di Bloom versus Leanne Leece, 5th May 1971.

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