Rare Les Darcy photograph gifted to Club
by Greg Martin
Readers of this fine publication are probably aware that I am a proud founding member of the Les Darcy Club .
The birth of the Les Darcy Cub was the brainchild of my great but sadly departed old mate , John Scott , and its membership includes a cross section of society .
Among its 30 or so members are John ’ s son , Greg , boxing legends Johnny Lewis , Charkey Ramon and Ken Salisbury , Col Joye , Mike Cleary , former NSW Sports Minister , John Brown , John Singleton , restauranteur Mick Doyle , turf journo Max Presnell and author-poet Peter “ Fab ” Fenton . Every three months or so – barring COVID lockdowns – members congregate at the historic Lord Dudley Hotel in Woollahra for lunch , be entertained by an always interesting guest speaker and have a great time with old mates .
The reason we meet at the Lord Dudley is because that ’ s where Les Darcy lived when he came down from Maitland to Sydney to train for his fights at the Old Tin Shed – Sydney Stadium .
Back during World War I , the Lord Dudley was owned by the O ’ Sullivan family and Les met the beautiful daughter , Winnie , through her brother Maurice , a fight fan .
The couple fell in love , became engaged and Les would stay at the hotel on his forays to The Big Smoke .
As all of you are aware , the great boxer died while in the USA in 1917 whilst trying to get fights after being blacklisted and backstabbed back home by those mongrels , Hugh D . McIntosh and Snowy Baker .
The current owners of the famous hotel , sisters , Honor , Kate and Claire Couche , are strong supporters of our club and they have established the Les Darcy bar and function room upstairs .
Adorning the walls in the comfortable bar are numerous photographs and memorabilia depicting Les ’ life .
And now , thanks to a generous Independent magazine reader , I will have the pleasure of presenting another fabulous photograph to be hung in the bar .
This delightful person , who wishes to remain anonymous , can proudly boast that the great boxer is a not-so-distant relative .
“ The photograph came into my late father ’ s keeping ages ago but his proud possession has been sitting in a cupboard ever since he passed away in the early 80s ,” the reader explained .
“ I ’ ve read about your association with the Les Darcy Club and thought perhaps your club could make better use of it .” And that we will ! I scanned through hundreds of Les Darcy photographs in books and online and couldn ’ t find a copy of the photograph anywhere .
What a prize addition to our Les Darcy Club memorabilia ! We ’ re planning our comeback Les Darcy Club lunch for late February and I ’ ll be proudly presenting , on behalf of our wonderful reader , the framed photograph to the hotel ’ s manager , Honor Couche .
In the photograph , Les Darcy poses for the birdie not long after he beat the classy American , Eddie McGoorty , by knocking him down four times in the last round . The victory was his first against an overseas opponent and established Les as a world class boxer .
The gold fob watch he is proudly wearing was a gift from his trainer and mate , Dave Smith .
BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT theindependentmagazine . com . au ISSUE 09 // DECEMBER 2021 9