This book contains most of the contents of a magazine called HEW which ran to seven issues before closing. The following was taken from all the editorials that appeared.

I must say that all the people who have corresponded with me over the period that I have been setting up the project have been kind, helpful and appreciative. Despite what many may believe, HEW enthusiasts do not have horns or three heads etc. They are ordinary people, many of whom are undoubtedly better citizens of the world than conventional folk. You have only to read through the interests of the people placing the contact advertisements we have received to confirm this. Provided that they take sensible precautions to start with, women wanting an understanding man with whom to share the joys of HEW should have no fear in placing their listings with us.

HEW is not about hurting people, it is about the ultimate in pleasure. If you want to hurt people, then collect Poll Tax, or join a dictator's army or something like that. We are not right for you.

Women's Judo made its appearance for the first time in the Olympics in 1993. Several bouts were televised during the late evening sessions on BBC1. Instead of a contest of all throws and no holds, there were several holds similar to wrestling moves. If Judo is to become a television spectator sport, though, the contestants will have to wear different colour costumes to make the action easier to follow. Ron Farrar (Ace Sports Promotions) wrote that it is the closest sport to pro-wrestling. The amateur and Greco-Roman wrestling seen at the Olympic Games bears little or no resemblance to pro-style.

Also, as Judo is supposed to be a game of skill and not strength, maybe one day there will be mixed bouts arranged as an "establishment" sport.

The future of HEW is becoming a problem. We seem to attract very few females. Maybe the stance of the newsletter is too male orientated. The explicit clinical approach may be a turn-off for females who do send in for details. Therefore I have toned down the wording in the introductory sheets. The other problem is that the flow of articles is too slow for a regular newsletter, so we have to publish as and when material is present. One alternative that I am considering may be to publish just as a listings sheet with possibly an "annual" with articles etc. The other difficulty is the cost of advertising. A solution to this may be to put the price up substantially, to £60/$100, but people probably won't be able to afford this, and anyway it will all be pointless if we can't get women to join. I had thought that a good place to advertise HEW would be alongside other specialised dating agencies in Dateline magazine. However they refused the advertisement.

I did apply to advertise in the American magazine New Body. The advertisement the publishers turned down was Lonely Hearts interested in fun wrestling: Bargain! After faxes to and fro, the publishers finally suggested: Women interested in wrestling for fun! Great Bargain! It appeared that "lonely hearts" triggered the unfavourable reation. Time will tell whether the advertisement will bring any response from the publication (in April 1993).

Issue Six, as you all know, is the last of the volume and as everyone pays for six issues we can stop then without anyone being left with their subscription unfulfilled. The fact that we have been running for some considerable time longer than the year originally intended means that we have given the idea of a newsletter coupled with singles advertising a good try. As we have had only one female advertiser over this period obviously we have got something seriously wrong, and there seems little point in continuing from the point of view of solving the problem for men who want ladies who like to wrestle.

Video Cassettes

If it wasn't for Ron Farrar, who has provided the bulk of the articles, there would also be little to fill each issue. As Ron is writing about the past, obviously his source of material isn't infinite. Various video tape vendors have sent advertising features, but the prices of these tapes is very high because they sell in small numbers to a specialist market. This high price ensures that the market stays very small and so it is a vicious circle, with only the tax authorities winning, (as taxes and duties are usually a percentage of selling price.) Often cheaper tapes have very little actual wrestling action, which makes them just as expensive in terms of £/min of wrestling.

Satellite Television

Subscription fees are being charged for more and more satellite channels, so the chances of these being sources of low cost female wrestling material are waning. As satellite tv is charged for on a monthly basis, rather than pay-per-view, subscribing just for wrestling is not a reasonable option. (And many viewers of the once free Sky One etc are likely to dispose of their equipment rather than pay fees to watch pictures degraded by the encoding and decoding process.)

Virtual Reality

It is an interesting thought that at one time still photographs of women wrestling (and magazines containing them) were sold at high prices. Now they are given away to promote video cassettes. Maybe in the future video cassettes will be given away to promote virtual reality entertainments? Virtual reality wrestling would be very much more difficult to implement than virtual reality sex, (also known as "dildonics") because of the risk of injury. But no doubt some sort of entertainment of interest to mixed wrestling enthusiasts will be developed even though it isn't actual wrestling. Worldwide the market is large enough, and it only takes one talented individual also bitten with the wrestling bug and with the right skills to develop software for existing virtual reality systems.

Attitude of female wrestlers

I would suspect that most (female) wrestlers would regard an erotic interest in their sport about as strange as a (female) tennis player or cricketer or even (female) accountant would regard an erotic interest in their sport/profession. (Don't confuse this with an erotic interest in a particular person, eg tennis star, pop singer etc.) Therefore the female wrestling stars themselves are just as unlikely to be suitable girlfriends for men excited by wrestling as any other females. Very often, they lead perfectly ordinary lives out of the ring as housewives and mothers, and regard themselves as entertainers by profession, no different to a singer or comedian.

Finding a girlfriend

However the fact remains that there are a measurable number of men who are excited by wrestling with (or more usually being wrestled by) a woman. Also, I would suspect from the advertisements that most subscribers want to hear about how to get girlfriends and as this isn't easy there have been few articles on this subject. We are fortunate in having the services of Helen Paris, who has had professional experience in sex education and relationship counselling, but even she cannot work miracles! Few readers wrote in specifically with problems, and she has had to try and estimate what people want to know.

One possible solution is to advertise for a broadminded female interested in erotic experiment, in a general dating magazine such as Dateline (found at most newsagents). Such broadminded females are usually middle class and fairly intelligent, so if you are put off by such ladies then you may have a problem. Such advertising is expensive - to place a 50 word advertisement may cost £50-75 per month and you would have to advertise for many months in order to get a result. Some magazines may have a "three for the price of two" advertising offer which is worth taking. I would advise readers to be specific about all their interests.

It is no good just saying that you like to be given a particular wrestling hold and leave it at that. The only effect that advertisement will have will be to give comfort to a few other men who like the same thing and won't feel quite so odd and alone. Some people have told me that they have advertised in Amfem for tens of years with no result. Sure, people copy adverts that are already there, but this is no good if those adverts aren't getting results. It's like a craze people had in the 1960s for advertising Bill Hailey 78 rev/min records for £25 in Exchange and Mart - one advert spawned many like it, but who ever sold one?

Finding a girlfriend who likes wrestling is probably the most difficult thing you will ever do. It is not impossible, but it will involve work, and some of that work may be self improvement, such as improving your writing and communicating skills. Fortunately you don't need much equipment to write, although if you can afford it a word processing typewriter can these days check spelling as make a perfect looking document emerge without crossings out. I would advise using a good quality notepaper for your letters, as the quality of presentation will be the first impression you will give to your potential new friend. Ideally if you can get headed paper made this is best, and there are many cottage industries set up by people with personal computers and laser printers who will produce a few sheets for a minimal outlay.

Assuming you are looking for someone to marry or live with, you should decide before you meet anyone whether you would be prepared to go and live somewhere else, possibly changing your job or losing contact with friends. If you live somewhere nice, then it is more likely that you can get someone to come to you. If you are willing to move, it may be worthwhile saying this in your advertisement, as it would put you at a definite advantage to many people who can't or won't. If you live somewhere nice it would be worthwhile putting this, as many magazines don't state location. Therefore spend one word at the end of your advertisement to state your county or town, eg (Cornwall) Box 123456.

Once again readers had to wait a long while for the next issue, and the pattern was be set to continue if HEW continued. After a lot of head scratching and soul searching, I decided to try and offer some form of service, as clearly there is a need even though the numbers are small.

The plan was as follows: Subscription forms were enclosed, and readers are being told that if too few people sign on, then those that do will have their cheques or postal orders returned. Subscriptions was to have been for six issues as before, although as our other publications now cost £20 for a volume of six issues,

In future, HEW was to run as follows: Issues will be produced when time and number of articles permit. Contributors are asked to submit all material either on MSDOS disks of either size or density, or typewritten.

I now had a machine that will scan typewritten material into the computer. Time contraints preclude copy typing large screeds of material, so people wanted their articles to appear then they were asked to get a friend to type it, or to buy a typewriter from a local paper advertisement or boot sale. They cost very little these days as most people use computers or electronic typrewriters. Obviously they couldn't all type well, but were told "take your time and use plenty of correction fluid - don't type over or make blobs, as this confuses the scanner. Also get a new ribbon and clean out the keys - "fugged" e's and o's would also be a problem."

The procedure for new entries to the contacts sheet is as follows:

When someone joins, they can nominate people to receive the sheet, and they will be sent copies immediately. Current subscribers can send an SAE at any time for the latest issue.

I do not at the present time intend paying for any more advertising, although if individual members want to advertise HEW anywhere locally or nationally they are welcome to do so, but please check with me first the wording and place of the advertisement.

People are also asked to be sensible when using the leaflets or shop cards. Do get permission when placing advertisements on notice boards etc, and don't shove the leaflets through doors at random. HEW is not here to offend people who are not excited by its contents. Indeed, some people may be nauseated by them and just as you don't like being nauseated then you should respect others.

Regretfully there were too few renewals for HEW to continue, therefore I returnd the few subscriptions that were received. We needed five times as many subscribers to make it worth while. However there are a number of people trying to start new magazines, and hopefully the idea that was HEW will continue with these.

If you are looking for a female partner, then I can only suggest that you do what I did and advertise in Dateline, although I loath to give this advice as they wouldn't accept an advertisement for HEW. Dateline can be found in newsagents. However they did let an interest in wrestling through in a private advertisement, and this is how I found my present companion. The cost is not insignificant at about £50 for a reasonably sized advertisement. Although the magazine appears monthly, they advise advertising at six monthly intervals as each issue has quite a long life as it is passed between friends or gets read in waiting rooms.

As ever, I would advise stating all your interests and add wrestling amongst them. When you get a reply you can always send her an issue of HEW to show what it is all about and also to indicate that you are not totally alone in your interest in heterosexual wrestling. Back issues are available from Longevity Books.

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