T/W - Winter 1973/74 (5).

From the "Nottinghamshire Athletic Gazette" newspaper, March 20th 1974.

"'It's not controversial - it's just boring.' Thus opined Mansfield Tickle Wrestler and No. 11 North Midlands contender Judy Birch following her easy victory over Philomena Radcliffe, the South West Tickle Wrestling No. 5 from Bristol, in a bikini bout at Clevedon, Somerset, yesterday.

The subject to which Birch was alluding is the body-scissors, which has just been banned from Belgian Tickle Wrestling bouts. 'Thank goodness at least one country has had the common sense to get rid of this pathetic hold. I know they're seriously considering doing the same in the States and West Germany. The sooner we follow suit in Britain, the better.'

Birch obviously has strong views about the body-scissors, but she's certainly been backing up her words with action recently. Having been on a two-month tour of the south-east last year, she won all her bouts in Essex, which is possibly the body-scissors capital of the Tickle Wrestling world. She followed this up with a victory over Nottingham's Henrietta Morrison, another who frequently uses the body-scissors  

And then there was her victory against Radcliffe.

'Look at it logically,' the Mansfield girl stated. 'If a Tickle Wrestler who relies heavily on the body-scissors is pitted against a competitor who doesn't possess the skill to escape the hold, the result is the so-called spectacle of two women sitting around all night. Not exactly conducive to attracting huge audiences, is it? If, on the other hand, you have a slightly-more-intelligent opponent who can get out of the hold, or, better still, use the position to her advantage... Well, you saw what happened in my match against Philly [Radcliffe].'

What happened was that when Radcliffe applied her first body scissors from the back. Birch simply leaned forward and gave her opponent a tickle orgasm. [See photograph above.] 'All right, it wasn't quite as straightforward as it looked,' she confessed. 'However, the trouble with these body-scissors "experts" is that they seem tactically unable to stop using the hold. Take Philly, for instance. She knew I'd beaten my last four opponents as a direct result of them applying a body-scissors to me. But, even then, she couldn't stop herself using it... so, naturally, I won within five minutes.'

While Birch's one-woman campaign, on and off the mat, has reaped considerable success, she admits she'll have a pang of regret if the body-scissors is banned from UK Tickle Wrestling, if only on a personal level. 'It'll deprive me of easy wins,' she grins, ruefully. 'But the well-being of the sport has to come first. If Tickle Wrestling was a procession of body-scissors after body-scissors, no-one would be interested in it. While I was in Essex, there was a match between their No. 1 and No. 3 contenders [Tessie Goodwin and Freda Hodgson respectively - Editor] which attracted an audience of two women and a dog, and the dog was on a pretty tight leash. If you'd had a bout between numbers 1 and 3 in, say, the West of Scotland Region, where the body scissors is rare, there'd be a full house.'"