Barry Keene was without doubt one of the finest wrestlers I ever saw in 60 years of watching wrestling contests.

The smaller boys like Barry, Brian "Buddy" Coyle, "Jumping" Joe Andrews, and "Wild" Don Scott, all worked for Ernie Pinches in the South Pacific Wrestling Association in Auckland.

Having spent time in England and Europe, I know boys like "Mustard" Keene would have been sensations there. They loved the smaller wrestlers who could do everything the big heavyweights could do, only twice as quickly.

We, in New Zealand, were brought up on the lumbering big American heavyweights, who could wrestle, but lacked the speed and agility of the smaller boys. They would come here to face our Lofty Blomfield and Canada's Earl McCready. Lofty had patented the Octopus Clamp as his own, and in those days each wrestler had his own speciality hold – McCready the rocking chair splits – Ken Kenneth the Irish Whip – George Walker the back-loop slam and so on. That's how they got their falls and no one dared use the other guy's pet hold.

After Lofty retired not many tried the Octopus Clamp, but Barry Keene was a master at it.

When we were at school the kids copied the holds from the previous night's radio wrestling and Lofty's clamp was often put on at school. We were always told it was an inescapable hold and you would have to go to hospital to get it released. However when we saw the kids doing it at school we all had a go at it.

"Mustard" Keene was so named because he was hot as mustard and he was indeed hot property. He could do every hold in the book and many more besides. He was also known as a top dropkick artist. These boys put on great shows and they didn't need the American wrestlers to draw large crowds at their matches.

Among the smaller boys Barry Keene rated very highly. He was an ex amateur Champion well schooled in the basics of wrestling, and he had an amazing turn of speed to go with it.

We will miss this fine sportsman, who was also a top Rugby League player.