Fight Night top value at Windsor Leagues
by Greg Martin
A fertile mind has our Mark Hardman , proprietor and head coach of Windsor ’ s BoxFitt Gym and Box ‘ n ’ Burn Fitness Classes .
Mark is promoting Fight Night at Windsor Leagues Club on November 18 and began thinking about the undercard to the main event .
That main event is a six , two-minute rounds stoush for the Asia-Pacific Welterweight title between Marsden Park ’ s Katelyn “ The Wild Thing ” Lodge and Fijian titleholder , Maureen “ Mayhem ” Chand .
“ Believe you me , finding an undercard is always problematic for all fight promoters ,” Mark said .
“ I began making calls to trainers and promoters and while I was on the ‘ phone to one bloke , I looked at all the action in the BoxFitt gym at Windsor Leagues , smacked the head and said , ‘ yes ’,”.
There in front of his bo-peepers was his undercard !
“ I couldn ’ t count the number of times gym members and those who attend our Box ‘ n ’ Burn classes have mentioned that they ’ d like to have a go against an opponent in the ring ,” Mark explained .
“ So , I put the word out that I was looking for fighters to fill the undercard and found myself inundated with boys and girls , men and women , keen to don the gloves .”
BoxFitt Gym and Box ‘ n ’ Burn members across the Hawkesbury , Hills and Blacktown will fill the undercard in 19 match-ups .
The ages of the fighters range from
14-year-olds to a couple of big boppers , heavyweight men in their late 30s and early 40s .
“ Finding the boxers was easy but then I had to ensure that each of the bouts wouldn ’ t be lopsided , but I ’ m happy with my match-making and all the fights should be close-fought affairs ,” Mark said .
Most of the undercard events will be fought over three , two-minute rounds but Mark has gone a bit easier on the men throwing leather in the two heavyweight bouts .
“ They all weigh over 100kgs and from what I ’ ve seen in their workouts , all four can wallop , but throwing leather helterskelter is tiring , so I ’ ve shortened their three rounders by 30 seconds .
One heavyweight bout brings together Jack “ Hammer ” Fleetwood , a Hawkesbury Valley Rugby first grade centre who is in the first year of a Bachelor of Health Science degree , and 29-year-old Damien “ Punchand ” Parrey , the proprietor of Parrey Plumbing and Drainage .
The other heavyweight bout features Drue “ Quickdraw ” Galea , owner of multi-tasking business , Calibre Worx and Stephen “ Nail ‘ em ” Naylor , the president of Londonderry Greys Junior Rugby League Club .
Katie Lodge comes into the fight after a disappointing professional debut points loss at Wests HQ ( nee Rooty Hill RSL ).
“ I certainly didn ’ t live up to my ring nickname , but this time the real Wild
Ready to rumble ! Exciting professional , Katie Lodge , works the pads in giving Jack Fleetwood a tough work-out in preparation for Fight Night . Both boxers will feature on the actioned-packed card . Photo : Kathryn Johnston .
Thing will be on show ,” Katie said .
“ I let my opponent dictate that fight and just didn ’ t bring my power into the bout at any stage – that won ’ t be the case on November 18 !
Your writer has seen Katie in action in sparring sessions with men , and boy-ohboy can she wallop !
All the action kicks off at 5.30pm when gates open and the first boxers toe the line in the ring at 6pm .
General admission is $ 70 – for 20 fights , that ’ s a steal !
Tickets & Info : Lauren 0414 595 446
HARPO ’ s MARKS
The always entertaining author , Bill Bryson wrote one of the more memorable and quips in his terrific book , Down Under .
Down Under is Bill ’ s thoroughly entertaining 2000 publication about his travels throughout Australia . He spent an appalling sojourn at a hotel in Perth which he described as “ singularly execrable ”.
On handing over his credit card to pay the account , the bloke manning the desk said to Bill : “ Well , we hope you ’ ll come again ”.
“ I would sooner have bowel surgery in the woods with a stick ,” Bill replied .
The dumbo behind the counter said : “ Excellent ”. I would rather have bowel surgery in the woods with a stick than watch a National Rugby League Women ’ s match ! Let ’ s admit it , attacking flair has gone out of rugby league for both men and women , all due of course to the fact that according to coaches , “ possession is nine tenths of the law ” – well , in fact for the NRL mob , it is ten tenths . Back to the NRLW . The great bulk of the players on each time are , well , yes , bulky – lumpy ladies who just get the first pass off the playthe-ball and , like their male counterparts , charge into three or four equally lumpy lasses . I ’ ve watched highlights of a few games this past season and lemme tell ya , it was as rare as an honest politician to see the pill pass through two sets of hands . If I ever watch another game , well , just bring on that stick and put me out into the bush !
By the time you read this , the 2022
Melbourne Cup – the 162nd Race that Stops a Nation will have been run and won .
Hope you backed the winner , unlike Edward “ Darcy ” Eccles , the owner of the 1922 6 / 1 favourite in the Great Race , The Cyther , who stood to collect over 100,000 pounds if he ( the horse , not Darcy ) could have edged out the winner .
The Cyther drew level three times down the running with King Ingoda which took over the lead just after turning for the long run to the winning post .
Eccles , one of the biggest punters in the country for the first half of the 20th century , would have been cheering his head off but alas , King Ingoda gave a little extra in the shadows of the post to get home by a head .
Now let ’ s put that 100,000 into perspective ! Today it would equate to $ 8,730,000 . King Ingoda ’ s victory was the great James Scobie ’ s second of four wins in the time-honoured race – previously having won with Clean Sweep in 1900 and later putting the polish on victors , Bitalli ( 1923 ) and Trivalve ( 1927 ). Cry no tears for Darcy Eccles ! To say Darcy liked a bet is to say Walter Lindrum could pot a billiard ball !
Darcy , who was a top-class billiards player good enough to win the 1924 Australian Amateur title , got all his The Cyther losses back and more 15 years later . In fact , much , much more ! Darcy owned The Trump , which had a Winx-like spring campaign in 1937 , winning six races on the trot , ending with victory in that ’ s year ’ s Melbourne Cup .
The Trump started 11 / 2 favourite in the big race and got the bikkies from New Zealander Willie Win and Sarcherie , which had previously finished second in the race in ’ 34 and ’ 35 .
Darcy backed The Trump in every one of those wins and is reported to have won 200,000 quid which equates to $ 19,480,000 in today ’ s money .
Unfortunately for Darcy , there was no-winning post in regard to the punt and when he went to the Big Racetrack in the Sky in 1945 , his friends had to have a whip around to give the colourful racing identity a funeral .
So , Penrith league player , James Fishwife-Haranguer , obviously full of grog for goodness knows how long after their NRL grand final win , shouts to the world that the ’ 22 Panthers lineup is the club ’ s greatest team ever . Now there ’ s a bloke who obviously goes to bed wearing boxing gloves !
The Hyphen was obviously on a high - of whatever sort – when he made the statement , but how dare this wombat denigrate members of the victorious ’ 91 and ’ 04 sides . This season ’ s premiers are a hot side and from the first round in 2022 they looked laydown miseres to annex the premiership .
Huge and powerful pack of forwards , outstanding half and fullback and all as fit ( and rampaging ) as Mallee bulls which resulted in a barnstorming attack and a defensive line which Atilla the Hun ’ s horde couldn ’ t have breached . Both the previous two grand final-winning Panthers teams would at least given the ’ 22 mob a real run for their money . Just have a gander at player lineups ! Panthers 2003 Rhys Wesser , Luke
Lewis , Ryan Girdler , Paul Wharuira , Luke Rooney , Preston Campbell , Craig Gower , Joel Clinton , Luke Priddis , Martin Lang , Joe Galuvao , Tony Paletua , Scott Sattler . Bench : Ben Ross , Trent Waterhouse , Shane Rodney , Luke Swain . That lot would have troubled the ’ 22 side and , in my opinion the ’ 91 premiers would have spanked their little Tijuana-brasses .
Panthers 1991 Greg Barwick , Graham Mackay , Col Bentley , Brad Fittler , Paul Smith , Steve Carter , Greg Alexander , Colin Van der Voort , Barry Walker , Mark Geyer , Paul Dunn , Royce Simmons , Paul Clarke . Bench : John Cartwright , Brad Izzard , Graham Bradley . And if a game between the ’ 91 and the 2002 sides was played with a referee who would penalise two or three extra defenders for flopping on an already tackled player , penalised an attacking player for hampering the defence at the play-the-ball and penalised players moving off the mark after a tackle , Simmo ’ s boys would romp in . You may or may not agree with my sentiments but I ’ m sure you all agree that the Hyphen ’ s comments were despicable .
LOW MARKS : Fishwife-Haranguer . ‘ nuf said ! LOWER MARKS : Federal and state governments for not legislating to prevent betting shops advertising on radio and television . They did it with lung killers in a bid to restrict smoking and should do the same with this mob .
36 ISSUE 150 // NOVEMBER 2022 theindependentmagazine . com . au THE HAWKESBURY INDEPENDENT