Sporting Notables

On the 18th October the Newcastle Herald wrote....."What promoter Mr J Andrews sees as the greatest combat ever witnessed in the North is to take place on October 25th when Billy McNabb meets Les Darcy for the purse of One Hundred Pounds. Darcy has by his many wins won a warm place in the hearts of sporting followers. He is a hard, clean fighter and McNabb will meet a boxer of the same style. It is the toughest task yet for the hardy East Maitlander".

      The McNabb ancestry went back to the bushranger country around the Bathurst district of New South Wales where James McNabb married MIss Mary Ann Fogarty, sister of "Jawbreaker" Jim Fogerty from Fitzgerald Valley.

      William McNabb was born at Newbridge, in the Bathurst/Blayney region in 1891. Mary, a remarkable "Woman of the West" in later years was to become a well known and highly respected figure around Weston for her bush nursing activities.

      In 1902 the McNabb and Fogarty families moved to the coalfield and settled in Weston. The McNabb brothers Tom and Jack were great bike riders who rode in the classic Goulburn to Sydney marathon. Redhead Billy was a natural recruit to the noble art of self defense and found ample scope for his fighting inclinations when thrown amongst other budding pugilists of the area. Billy made his mark on both the football and fighting fronts. A physical fitness fanatic, in the field of skipping once performed 1000 skips in 4 minutes 28 seconds then went on to record 11,000 turns in 66 minutes without a break.

       After winning the 10 stone tournament at Summer Park in 1911 his record indicated excellent fighting form with KO wins over Les Gleeson,  NZ middleweight at Wollongong on August 10th then coming home to defeat Joe Shakespeare at Cessnock several weeks later.

      Many of the coalfielders who went down to Maitland on 25th October including stable backer Albert Burns threw in for a big win on the Fighting Butcher.

      Tremendous crowds filled Maitland streets and Pubs on the afternoon of the fight and while the gate check showed 2000 paying customers it appeared from casual observation the attendance figures exceeded officail estimates with hundreds being turned away from the stadium doors.

      From the bell the pace was a cracker without any exploring tactics. Darcy proved himself an aggressive coool but relentless fighter and showed that he had the grit to take a hiding. McNabb was always willing and showed he could give as well as take. He pasted Darcy in several rounds with lefts and rights to the face, head and body but paid a heavy toll. The deadly uppercut which he relied on was tried nine times but the wary Darcy kept his head out of the danger zone.

      In the last round McNabb was out for a KO and flew into Darcy's corner from the bell. For a minute he seemed to have his opponent rattled but Darcy was the aggressor for the rest of the fight but could not put McNabb to the floor.

      It was a fitting close to a great fight in which McNabb, although beaten on points by a large magrin stood out as a hard, gritty and plucky fighter who would refuse to acknowledge defeat.   

      Billy McNabb went on to fight Les Darcy once more on the 23rd April 1914 at Andrews Stadium Maitland. Days before the bout Billy suffered a bout of dysentry and his weight reduced to 143lbs. Although a postponement was suggested the promoters push for the show to go on won the day and a well below maximum welter weight went in to meet a solidly well conditioned middleweight. Bill succombed and was knocked out in the 4th round. After the fighters had given a friendly handshake McNabb collapsed from cramps and had to be carried to his hotel.

      The Weston star went on to make his mark on the Australian boxing scene and fought first class ringmen including Jimmy Fitton, Fritz Holland, Fitz Makin, Pat Bradley, Henri Demlin and Jerry Jerome.

      With the passing of time the name of McNabb has been boldly written into Australian Fighting records. Billy McNabb of the tough pioneering coalfields days in the early 1900s who on his passing in 1968 received homage from the sporting public as the last great Fighter of the North to do battle with legendary fistic genius James Leslie Darcy.

      Most Weston residents would probably remember him as "Knocka" McNabb, the old fellow who would ride his bike about town at such a slow pace that he seemed to defy gravity.

~ Sandra McNabb Hafey and Coalfields Heritage Group

Achievements

Lumsden began his junior rugby league career with Weston.  1954 was the beginning of his senior career with Kurri Kurri.  In 1955 Lumsden played one season with Manly, before returning to Kurri in 1956. In 1958 Lumsden transferred to St George where he stayed up until the end of the 1963 season.

During Lumsden's rugby league career he represented Australia from 1959 to 1963, New South Wales Country in 1956 and New South Wales in 1957, 1959 to 1963. Lumsden was also made Life Member of St George and was on the Country and New South Wales Selection Panel from 1981 to 1986.

STATE:

1956 - New South Wales Country Representative

1957 - New South Wales Representative

1958 - New South Wales Colts Representative

1959 - New South Wales Representative

1960 - New South Wales Representative

1961 - New South Wales Representative

1962 - New South Wales Representative

1963 - New South Wales Representative

INTERNATIONAL:

1959 - Australia V's New Zealand Touring Team

1960 - Australia V's French Touring Team

1962 - Australia V's Lions Touring Team

1963 - Australia V's New Zealand Touring Team

1963 - Australia V's South African Touring Team

1959 - Kangaroo Tour of Great Britain and France

1961 - Australian Touring Team to New Zealand

See the following websites for more details of Eddie Lumsden's football career:

Eddie Lumsden at the Rugby League Project.

Eddie Lumsden at Wikipedia.

Stewart Pike

Swimmer

This citation was read on the occasion of Stewart Pike's induction into the City of Cessnock Hall of Fame on 6th December 2006.

Stewart Pike was born in 1981, and attended Weston Primary School and Kurri Kurri High School. He began his swimming career in earnest when he was 16, and three years later was selected to represent Australia in swimming at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.

At those Games, Stewart was a finalist in a number of events:

• S14 50m butterfly

• S14 200m freestyle

• S14 4×50m medley relay

• S14 100m freestyle

• S14 100m backstroke

He subsequently won the Gold Medal in the S12 4x100m Freestyle Relay in World Record time, and won the Silver Medal in the S14 200m Individual Medley.

Whilst at the Games in Sydney, Stewart achieved Personal Bests in six events, broke five Australian Records and one Paralympic Record.

He was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and the Cessnock City Council Australia Day Sports Award in 2001.

• Born Weston 1981

• Attended Weston Primary School

• Attended Kurri High School

• Finalist S14 50m butterfly at the Paralympic Games, Sydney, 2000

• Finalist S14 200m freestyle at the Paralympic Games, Sydney, 2000

• Finalist S14 4×50m medley relay at the Paralympic Games, Sydney, 2000

• Finalist S14 100m freestyle at the Paralympic Games, Sydney, 2000

• Finalist S14 100m backstroke at the Paralympic Games, Sydney, 2000

• Won the Gold Medal in the S12 4x100m Freestyle Relay in World record time at the Paralympic Games, Sydney, 2000

• Won the Silver Medal in the S14 200m Individual Medley at the Paralympic Games, Sydney, 2000

• Whilst at the Paralympic Games in Sydney, Stewart achieved Personal Bests in six events, five Australian Records and one Paralympic Record

• Awarded the Australian Sports Medal, 2000

• Awarded in 2001 the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to sport as a gold medallist at the Paralympic Games, Sydney, 2000

• Awarded the Cessnock City Council Australia Day Sports Award 2001