The horses in this old postcard printed in Saxony, bearing a New South Wales stamp circa 1920, had no cause to fear an encounter with a punchy Darwin man.
An usual story has surfaced involving a noted oldtime British boxer -Teddy Talbot- who once fought a prominent pug after whom a pub and pint of ale were named and kayoed a Darwin horse. A nuggety little man , the late Albert Edward Talbot, strolled about purposefully, with arms spread like a gunfighter.
He was a hawker who drove about Darwin in a van, mainly selling clothes to Aboriginal women, often seen outside Bagot . His face showed the signs of many professional fights in Britain between 1926 to 1932. On top of that, it was suggested that during WW11 he had fought many other bouts when serving in the Royal Navy , once stationed at Hong Kong. In 1958 he lived in Sandalwood Street ,Nightcliff, listed on the electoral roll as a traveller . He regularly attended rugby league matches at the Garden’s Oval, engaging in lively banter with coaches and supporters of various clubs.
At times he clashed verbally with rugby officials and footie fans ; an irate man hauled off and hit Talbot in the head . He responded by asking his assailant if he wanted to damage his hand as Ted’s cranium had been massaged many times in his boxing career and was rock hard.
Last week , in the lead up to Black Caviar’s appearance at Royal Ascot, a lively anecdote surfaced in a gathering of racing tragics who regularly meet at Casuarina Square to shoot the breeze and tell interesting stories about the past . One of these was the sad event in which Talbot accidently hit a racehorse near Fannie Bay with his van and sent it down for the never ending count . Part owner of the unfortunate horse , said to have been related to two time Melbourne Cup winner, Peter Pan , was Darwin businessman ,the late Ted D’Ambrosio, once deputy mayor.
The accident was the subject of much discussion among the gentlemen of the Darwin waterfront . Police , it was recounted , took notes at the scene of the mishap, and Talbot was asked to describe what had happened . He apparently said the horse had suddenly run in front of his car . The constabulary asked for an estimate of the speed at which the horse was travelling...fast, slow? Talbot paused , trying to find the exact word to describe the pace of the animal, eventually replied : "Put down lolloping ." Walkley Award winning journalist,the late Keith Willey , did some checking on Talbot’s boxing career , and said he came across mention of Talbot having taken part in what had been described as a memorable stouch , which caused the cheering fans to almost lift the roof off the stadium .
Regarded as a fierce man in the ring , Talbot in 1929 fought another tough British professional boxer , Percy Vear, who notched up 85 professional fights at a time when it was not uncommon for a boxer to have 30 fights in one year . Vear , well known in the British boxing boom years from 1926 to 1932 , started as a flyweight , became a bantamweight and later a featherweight. He is remembered by a "traditional real ale public house " named after him in his hometown , Keighley , which sells a special ale, Percy’s Pint, specially brewed by the Empire Brewery, Huddlesfield . An artist in 2009 also painted a watercolour of Vear sitting atop a chimney. It is doubtful if a photograph of Teddy Talbot exists anywhere in the Territory .- ( Postcard from Peter Simon Ephemera Collection.)
