My X-mas is not up yet, is yours?
To save time I left them up from last year. I that so surprising?
Not suprising, but a bit redundant, dont you think?
That is easy for you to say, they are not your balls swinging in the breeze. However, have you seen them when they are illuminated?
Only once, many years hence when I climbed up the west face of Blackpool tower for a dare, the Police in their wisdom tried to blind me with ridiculous search lights which illuminated the body from head to toe, did you manage to get a photograph of the event?
Now you come to mention it, many years ago I found an old copy of the Cheadle District Advertiser or it may have been the Stretford & Urmston Messenger washed up on the shore, probably discarded from the deck of a passing Brigantine. Anyhow, I assumed it was a story about King Kong, if that was you, who was the maiden in your arms?
Ah! Cheadle that explains a great deal, are you aware that Stretford especially is a very sporting area! The young lady in my arms, that was Nellie Bishop from Bradford, a nice young lady who wore fur coats, rings on her fingers, bells on her toes and danced around gypsy encampments for money which they would throw at her. Her father Matt Muran organised bare knuckle fist fights for Saturday night entertainment, it was commonly known as the 'booths'.
He would promise to give you £2..00 if you could stay in the ring with his champion for three rounds. You relied on his corner men to look after you in between rounds and if you were lucky enough to be still standing with your ribs intact at the end of round two, something was bound to happen as you stood up for round three.
You could un-explainably start to feel dizzy, you could also see at least two opponents or you had problems with the length of wire which had some how or another become tied in a reef knot around your left ankle. It threw you off balance and distracted you from the job in hand when jerked by the thug at the other end.
When you next climbed up off the floor, you had lost!
However, Matt being a sporting guy, would then offer you a rematch, for the following Saturday £5..00 for three rounds. The crowds the following week were massive and entry to the giant tent was increased to the punters by 6d. or so.
Do you think they made the right legislation in banning booth boxing?
No. Come to Oz and you can still participate in such events at our yearly Country shows. Are you prepared to come down under and have a crack at them?
Without hesitation, is Matt, or one of his many sons running things down there Dutchy?
You can still find gypsy camps now doing bare knuckle fighting. At Appleby (Lake District) they have a big gathering around Easter time, the bare knuckle stuff is a strong pointer, the Police appear to ignore it. They also had one earlier this year towards Blackpool and it was a big gypsy grudge fight. They turned up in their thousands from all over the UK especially Ireland.
From all accounts it spilled over into a free for all. They we're left to it and went on their respective paths after three or four days, a good time apparently having been had by all.
Quite possible. Do you want me to have a look the next time I see a bunch of shearers and jackeroos fighting?
Do me a favour and ask Dutchy, I think Old Matt will have passed on by now, but he had a big family all connected and you never hear about them nowadays at all.
Jimmy Longton, Joe Taylor, Brian Coxhead, now they could hit!
Jimmy & Joe are in their 70's now and still as strong as bulls, Brian passed away a few years back. He had a good send off! I remember Brian taking a horse into the Golden Ball at Longton, demanding it be treated as a customer and be served with a bucket of ale. What a night, it ended up with half the Police force after him, he got a tractor and gave them a fair old run until it turned over on him, he was hurt pretty badly. Bit of a fine when he went to court, the Judge knew! These lads were men of iron.
Isn't reminiscing fun?
Certainly is. Have you been writing your memoirs?
To be 100% honest with you Dutchy, I wouldn't bloody dare. I am glad I was born when I was though, its been a good time to live, would you agree?
Absolutely. Do it all over again, wouldn't you?
Would we be able to remember where we went wrong the first time round and act accordingly?
Are you talking about the event when you said "I do"?
Oh! I remember it well. The judge said, "Do you understand the charges before you?" I replied, "I do". I should have said no, can you read out all 47 again. That would have taken another day and given me time to plan an escape. Can you see that?
Are you still a free man or a fugitive?
With your reputation do you think I would tell you?
You don't trust Dutchy with that information?
