Almanac Boxing – ‘Diamond in the Dust Heap’, Episode 14: ‘Back in Brisbane – Hometown Shocker’ and Episode 15: ‘Excursions to Sydney and Melbourne’

 

 

EPISODE 14: BACK IN BRISBANE – HOMETOWN SHOCKER

 

In late July 1927, the Brisbane Courier analysed Herb’s prospects following the Walker result, an interesting piece which gives some insight into the economics of the fight game in Sydney in at that time.

 

BARKLE’S PROSPECTS

Queenslander Herb Barkle is now in the first flight of Australian bantams and with but a trifle of luck and some more experience he might become the Australian champion. Four out of every five newspaper reports state that he was unlucky not to have gained the decision over Micky Walker at Leichhardt a few days ago. Really he should have won by a knock-out at mid-journey, but in his over-anxiousness he missed his chance. Barkle is back in Brisbane for a few weeks, and feels very sanguine about his future. His next fight will be against Les Jackson, who is rated next to Teddy Green among the flyweights. Barkle says that Sydney gossip makes him a certainty to beat Jackson. It also is thought down there that he would be almost a certainty to beat the holder of the bantam title, Stan Thurbon. The only man Barkle has doubts about is Billy McAllister. And Mac will be the champion as soon as he gets a fight for the title. Barkle’s rosy prospects, based to a large extent on fact, make good reading for Queenslanders. And he is doing all right financially. His last effort returned him £60/10s. He expects about £80 for fighting Jackson.

 

As he hadn’t fought for nearly month, Herb agreed to a bout which would warm him up for his return to Sydney to take on Les Jackson. A match against young Sid Maguire of Newcastle was set down for a Saturday night, 6 August 1927, back at the Brisbane Stadium.

 

BARKLE v MAGUIRE

The contest to be decided at the Stadium on Saturday night will feature the reappearance of Herb Barkle, Queensland’s bantamweight champion, in opposition to Sid Maguire, the promising Newcastle featherweight, who has been making a great name for himself in the South during the past few months.

 

Maguire, who is said to be one of the most attractive boys in the Australian boxing world to-day, has an enviable record, having won 26 out of 27 contests, one of his most recent performances being to defeat Art Walker, the highly-thought-of Sydney featherweight, who up to meeting Maguire had an unbeaten record. Maguire is vouched for as being “the goods” by no less an authority than Tom Maguire, the well-known Newcastle teacher, whose pupils have won 10 Australian championships.

 

NEXT SATURDAY NIGHT

 

HERB BARKLE, Queensland’s Bantamweight Champion, will make his reappearance next Saturday night, when he will do battle with SID MAGUIRE, the highly touted Newcastle Featherweight, who has been carrying all before him in the South during the past few months.

 

The Queensland Champion has improved out of all knowledge as a result of his recent trips to Sydney, and during the past three months he has knocked out Johnny Rolls, outpointed Bob Gray, and lost a disputed decision on points to that great little fighter, Mickey Walker.

 

Sid Maguire, the Newcastle fighter, who is to oppose Barkle, is such an attractive fighter in action that he is considered to be one of the greatest “crowd-pleasers” in the Australian Boxing World to-day.

 

The Newcastle Champion will have a few pounds advantage in weight, but Barkle’s greater experience should off-set the Southern boy’s physical advantage.

 

The New Herb Barkle

Brisbane’s Greatly Improved Bantam to Meet a Smart Southerner To-morrow Night

By ‘The Gamester’ in the Brisbane Courier

 

Herb Barkle a few months ago sought out fresh fistic fields and pastures new, and to the staggering surprise of local ring connoisseurs who had measured him up as just a good average entertainer, Herb entered a campaign under the management of the astute Leichhardt (Sydney) promoter, Pat McHugh, and immediately jumped into the boom by stopping Johnny Rolls sensationally in one round, outpointing the redoubtable Bobby Gray, and losing a questionable decision to Mickey Walker, who had the scalp of Archie Cowan, present national bantam king, dangling at his girdle. The impressively new-modelled Barkle now returns to us, and we are to see him in opposition to-morrow night to the well-heralded Newcastle featherweight, Sid Maguire. The stage is, therefore, set up for us to sit up and take notice.

 

Herb Barkle’s rise to fistic recognition is a boost for the old adage that tells us that a prophet is without honour in his own country. Barkle for quite a number of years has been sporting his wares locally, but though we were prepared to accept Herb as a fairly meritorious entertainer, at no stage of his career did he ever really grip the imagination of fandom, and as a consequence he never really rose above the level of a main Wednesday night or double-bill draw-card. Now all of this is altered as Barkle in the bigger field of Sydney fistiana has thoroughly proved his mettle, and his recent Southern performances fully warrant his exploitation as a Brisbane Stadium Saturday night entertainer.

 

There is not a shadow of doubt that we under-rated the capabilities of Barkle, as there was no semblance of a fluke about his Sydney performances. When he shattered the fistic pretensions of Johnny Rolls in jig-time, some local “wiseacres” were inclined to pull the fluke criticism on Herb, but the bottom was quickly knocked out of this dope when Barkle handed the dazzling Bobby Gray as neat a lacing as that worthy ever received, and then came the greatest bombshell of them all, and the brilliant Mickey Walker was given a moral hiding. In using the latter term I am in no way over-flattering Barkle, as three out of the five leading boxing writers agreed that the decision in Walker’s favour was one of the worst ever given in Sydney.

 

With all this in mind it must be admitted that Manager Mr Hector R Doughty is fully justified in staging Barkle as a big drawcard, and it behoves fandom to rise to the occasion and greet the local kiddy with a large and appreciative house.

 

That Barkle will be stiffly tested seems reasonably certain as his opponent, Sid Maguire, has been making quite a name for himself in Newcastle, and hi shrewd mentor, Tom Maguire, has already a very exalted opinion of his protégé. Sid has cleaned up all the Coalopolis featherweights and good judges apart from Trainer Maguire, speak highly of Sid’s fistic future. Therefore we can confidently look forward to a stiff test for Barkle to-morrow night and incidentally a colourful and highly diverting contest. At that I will leave it.

 

In a surprising result, Maguire – who seemed at face value to be a class below Herb – won their bout, on points over fifteen rounds. ‘Amateur’ covered the fight.

 

Maguire Outpoints Barkle

A Big Surprise

Winner Shows Promise

By ‘AMATEUR’

 

Sid Maguire, the 18-year-old Newcastle featherweight, surprised by outpointing Queensland’s bantam champion, Herb Barkle, in the main event – a 15-rounder – at the Brisbane Stadium last Saturday night. As Maguire had hitherto figured mainly in preliminary contests in the South, his performance in accounting for a fighter of Barkle’s experience and punching power was a notable one.

 

Maguire (9.1) certainly had 7lb the better of the weights, but it was generally considered that that advantage would be more than counterbalanced by the Queenslander’s extra experience. I fancy Herb thought he had rather a soft snap on in the early rounds – it has been said that he thought he was “carrying along” his opponent – but when he applied the full pressure he was unable to send the Novacastrian floorwards. And then, in the 14^thround, after Barkle had wearied himself by his strenuous efforts, Maguire hooked a left to the chin with such force that the local man became glassy-eyed and wobbly-kneed. Lack of experience on Maguire’s part was the only reason Barkle was not sent to bye-bye. Maguire certainly came through his first big fixture with flying colours.

 

SHOULD MAKE GOOD FIGHTER. When “Dodger” Ryan, the Victorian trainer, was in Brisbane recently he saw a mid-week show, and subsequently informed me that our class of fighter was so poor that the leading Wednesday night performers would only appear in “prelims” in the South. And when it is considered that Maguire has never had anything better than a minor contest at the Sydney Stadium, it seems that Ryan was pretty close to the mark. Maguire has won numerous four-rounders in Sydney and a few longer bouts in his home town, but has never been considered as a Saturday night headliner. Still, his astute mentor, Tom Maguire, evidently knew that the youngster was quite able to take care of himself in the best of company, or he would not have asked Mr Doughty to stack Sid up against a tough customer like Barkle. The win should do the lad an immense amount of good. Just now he can be faulted in several directions, but it cannot be said that he punches badly with the right, for the simple reason that he never uses that hand. His tutor evidently thinks that “one at a time is good fighting,” and is getting Sid proficient in the use of the left before worrying over the right. It is a good plan, too. On Saturday Maguire scored freely with the left, both at long range and in close, and on occasions got all his weight behind it. In the close-ups, however, he has a penchant for holding-and-hitting, and under a strict referee would be at a disadvantage. Maguire is fairly fast, is tough, and is game, and it would not surprise in the least if he develops into a really good fighter. At present, however, Maguire has no cause for getting an inflated head, for there are a few second-rate nine-stoners in Brisbane who would make things decidedly interesting for him, even if they did not beat him.

 

BARKLE FOUGHT BADLY. Barkle’s form at Leichhardt recently was good, and earned for him laudatory references in the Sydney Press. Consequently he was expected to reveal a marked improvement last Saturday on anything he had previously given in Brisbane. On the contrary, however, Herb’s was the worst display I have seen from him for a long while, and on Saturday’s showing he has ‘slipped” rather than improved since he fought “Slack” Maher a fair while back. He was slow and uncertain, and his direction was awful. He was a very crestfallen little fellow after the bout, and intimated that he “could not make himself out, as he was unable to do anything right”. Perhaps it was Herb’s “night off”. It seems, however, that if he is to get back to the winning list he will have to mingle with the bantams only, for the nine-stoners are too big and too strong for him.

 

INTERESTING WORK. Barkle shaped up a “twos on” favourite, but got away to a very bad start, dropping the first four sessions. In addition to proving shifty at long range, Maguire worked a useful left uppercut in the clinches. Barkle, however, was not all out til the fifth, in which he placed hard rights to the head and body. They broke even in the sixth, but Barkle did so well in the seventh that his supporters were jubilant. It certainly did seem that Maguire would crack up. In the eighth a heavy right that crashed on to Maguire’s head might have caused the referee to do some counting had it lobbed on the chin. Hereabouts Barkle was putting all he had behind his rights, but was merely disturbing the atmosphere. Maguire was into his stride again in the ninth, and from that stage to the finish always looked the winner. He was a popular victor. It was an interesting tussle.

 

 

EPISODE 15: EXCURSIONS TO SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE

 

Herb now travelled back to Sydney to fight the well-credentialed and highly reputed Les Maher Jackson. The bout was originally scheduled for 19 August, but slipped to 2 September 1927.

 

Jackson, from Lithgow, was a mainstay of the bantamweight ranks right through the 1920s. He was a former holder of the Australian flyweight title and had achieved two wins over Billy McAllister. One of those victories was in a defence of Jackson’s flyweight championship. He also twice defeated Archie Cowan, losing a bantamweight title bout to Cowan on another occasion.

 

 

Jackson fought Stan Thurbon for the Australian bantamweight belt three times, in March, July and September of 1926. He lost two of those contests but won the middle bout, so briefly wrested the title from Thurbon.

 

 

 

The Australian bantamweight belt changed hands several times over the course of 1926 and 1927. Here is the sequence of the passing of the championship during that period, with all fights taking place at Leichhardt Stadium:

 

• 12 March 1926: Stan Thurbon defeated Les Jackson, defending the title he won in late 1925;
• 2 July 1926: Les Jackson defeated Stan Thurbon to claim the title, on points;
• 10 September 1926: Stan Thurbon won back the title from Les Jackson, on points;
• 22 July 1927: Archie Cowan defeated Stan Thurbon to win the title, on points;
• 23 September 1927: Billy McAllister defeated Archie Cowan, on points.

 

At the time his contest with Herb took place, Jackson’s professional record was 36 wins and 11 losses, according to boxrec.com.

 

A series of newspaper snippets in Sydney newspapers announced Herb’s return to the Harbour City.

 

Herb Barkle is also training for Les Jackson next Friday evening and if he gets over asks for another shot at Mickey Walker.

 

Al New reports that Queenslander Herb Barkle will be in town within a few days to prepare for his coming contest with Les Jackson at Leichhardt, due August 19.

 

A MIXTURE

Fun at Leichhardt

 

Next Friday night at Leichhardt fight fans will witness Herb Barkle in action for the first time since he suffered defeat at the hands of Mickey Walker.

 

Herb is to oppose the Lithgow bantamweight, Les Jackson.

 

Those who witnessed Barkle’s bout with Walker will certainly remember how he nearly put Mickey to sleep with a wonderful right. Just before that fixture, Herb had little difficulty in disposing of Bobbie Gray.

 

Jackson will be all out to win, as a clear-cut victory may put him in line for another championship bout, and with Barkle endeavouring to gain the prestige he lost through the Walker fight things should hum.

 

Herb triumphed. His win over Jackson was a vital step, getting him back on track.

 

Barkle Declared Winner Over Jackson: Great Night of Fisticuffs

 

Showing more speed than hitherto, Herb Barkle (8.6) put up a very good contest with Les Jackson (8.5½), and was declared winner, much to the disgust of the loser’s many barrackers. Others contended that Jackson deserved to win because Barkle was allowed to deliver his blows in faulty style – yet in that respect the loser deserved more censure than the winner, as was evidenced by the fact that, with the butt of the right hand, Jackson inflicted a deep wound over his opponent’s left eye.

 

Barkle does score in a faulty manner with his open left. But his frequent delivery of the right to the body were as clean as blows cold be, despite the fact that Jackson indicated that one of those blows landed below the waistline. But the fact of the lad from Lithgow immediately fighting back proved otherwise.

 

Jackson might have been given the decision, but by so slight a margin that a draw would have been an excellent finding. The difference of opinion concerning the verdict means that another meeting between them, over the 15-round course, would be a good draw-card.

 

Bolstered by Les Jackson’s scalp, Herb now became involved in a game of cat and mouse to get a shot at the national bantamweight championship.

 

After his defeat of Jackson on 2 September, Herb was in line to contend for the Australian title. Archie Cowan was now the national champion, and a Cowan-Barkle battle for the belt was set down to be held in Wollongong, Cowan’s home base, probably in October. Cowan was beatable, and Herb didn’t fear him.

 

Herb accepted an offer for a warm-up bout to be held in Melbourne, against Reg Ferris. It’s not been possible to locate a record of this fight, but it can be safely presumed that Herb was victorious. All we have to go on is a newspaper clipping.

 

Queenslander Herb Barkle is travelling some these times. He left for Melbourne on Sunday in order to take on Reg Ferris, and is due to get right on the train again to keep a date with Archie Cowan at Wollongong next Saturday.

 

Then disaster hit Herb when Billy McAllister claimed the belt from Cowan on 23 September. Herb’s anticipated title clash was off. He never got a shot at McAllister.

 

Billy McAllister was a great champion who held the Australian bantamweight title for a 4-year period, and who became British Empire bantamweight champion on 7 July 1928. His overall professional career record, in a career that lasted from 1922 to 1934, was 87 wins, 38 losses and 11 draws. McAllister eventually relinquished the bantam title some time in 1931, seemingly because of problems making the weight. By 1931 he was mainly in the ring against featherweights and lightweights. Over those four years McAllister had more than 30 fights, but (with the exception of being KO’d on one occasion by Australian Frank Jackson in a non-title bout at Broken Hill at the end of 1930) he lost only to leading international boxers, such as Americans Charley Van Reedon and Fidel LaBarba, and Filipino Herman Gildo. McAllister was KO’d in Sydney in January 1929 by LaBarba, who twice contended for the world featherweight title at Madison Square Garden in New York (losing both times).

 

These men, who were all in the league of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world at the time, were a notch above Herb Barkle’s level, but only just.

 

It seems that, after the word came through about Cowan’s loss, Herb accepted an additional fight in Melbourne. This was against Jack Fitzgerald, according to a faded newspaper clipping in Herb’s scrapbook:

 

Trainer Tom Kelly left for Melbourne Sunday night, where he will handle Jack Fitzgerald and Herb Barkle on Wednesday night.

 

Double disaster struck. Herb broke his hand in Melbourne. It can be assumed this occurred in the fight against Fitzgerald. There is nothing on the record to suggest Fitzgerald beat Herb, so this bout is a presumed win or, at worst, could have been a ‘no contest’.

 

Herb would have been downcast as he made the long journey back to Kingaroy. The following piece in the Brisbane Courier, from early January of 1928, tells the tale.

 

BARKLE BACK

 

After breaking his hand, Herb Barkle went to his home in the Kingaroy district, and has had a quiet time on the farm. His hand mended nicely, and he is now in Brisbane getting ready to fight Archie Cowan at Leichhardt on Friday week. He has not put on much weight, and his sparring does not seem to have suffered because of the spell.

 

Barkle says his Kingaroy admirers would fall over themselves to put up a £100 stake for him to fight Reg Cameron, and he would like to see the fight arranged. Barkle would be a few pounds heavier than Cameron, but it would draw a big gate if it could be arranged for Brisbane.

 

 

Read all of the episodes of Diamond in the Dust Heap HERE

 

All images provided by Dave Goodwin.

 

 

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Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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