WITH JIMMY SHARMAN'S TROUPE - poem by Colin Newsome

[Duncan Williams]

(The Green Tree Snake) Colin Newsome was a shearer and shed-hand, stockman and drover, soldier and show-ground fighter, bushworker and bush philosopher. A native of Glenn Innes, limited education has hindered his literary attempts, but his rugged verses carry a chime of crude sincerity and stark reality that more accomplished scribes seem anable to attain when writing about Australia's outback regions.


WITH JIMMY SHARMAN'S TROUPE

I've been stockman, drover, barman,
Said the shearer to his mates,
And i've toured with Jimmy Sharman,
In four Australian states.
'A challenge to all-commers',
Old Jimmy use to say,
And he was sixty summers,
If he was a blanky day.

I've had a rib and nose and jaw bust,
In many country towns,
And wrestled in the saw-dust,
With a hundred local clowns.
Queensland sugar lumpers,
And men who cut the cane,
Would challenge Sharman's thumpers,
For glory or for gain.

'Ring the bell and beat the big drum,
In western New South Wales,
Here's a fencer from the lignum,
As hard as horseshoe nails!
Push the crowd back from the canvas,
Surging farward like a flood,
All excited, every fan was,
Screaming for our blood.

'Down the Riverina,
Where they grow the wheat and corn,
Here's a man can throw a weaner,
If he gets him by the horn.
Wrestle with the fella,
Throw him on the mat,
And a womans umberella,
Comes down and knocks you flat.


Victorian timber workers,
And tillers of the soil,
Fight like wounded ghurkas,
When their blood begins to boil.
Toe to toe and rally! rally!,
Stagger backwards to the wall,
Fight the champion from the Mallee,
Head and shoulders over all.

Oh the glory gleam and glamour,
And the rush of Sydney show,
Where a hundred fighters clamour,
For the right to have a go.
How the challenges would wrangle,
And shout in dis-accord,
Some, intent to fight or strangle,
Tried to clamper up the board.

But they were wiser men and sadder,
When they got their senses back,
For Rud Kee at the ladder,
Was a tough old nut to crack.
I've travelled east and far, men,
And I'll roam further yet,
But the tour with Jimmy Sharman,
Is one i don't forget.

When the drums of memory rally,
With recollection bells,
And sent of saw-dust Sally,
Through the sheepyards rancid smells.
Then in fancy on the showgrounds,
My heart will take a glove,
While babies ride the merry-go-rounds,
And all the world's in love.



Colin Newsome (The Green Tree Snake)

[william williams]

Thank You Duncan I enjoyed it greatly He told it like it was in truth and simplicty
Great mate

Bill the Old Battler

[Neville Briggs]

That's got a good ballad style Duncan. I well remember the boxing at the showground, nearly as good as the wrestling at the Stadium.

[Bob Pacey]

Now that's my type of poem. I watched Fred Brophy on tv with his fighters and that is the real old sideshow action.

Been in many a tent boxing ring in my day as a part of the audience I might say and the atmosphere is electric.

Thanks Duncan

Bob

[warooa]

Thanks Duncan . . . the Green Tree Snake has strung 'em together nicely there. Sharman's tents are entrenched in folklore and he tells it well. Good stuff.

Cheers, Marty

[Maureen K Clifford]

Thanks Duncan for posting this..I have never read any of this gentleman's work before that I recollect but have seen the Boxing tents he writes of... Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Cheers

Maureen

[Jasper Brush]

G'day, Duncan.

I enjoyed this poem.

I remember the Sydney Royal.

The verse is true to the events.

There was a big white tent with a platform in front. One well-built man would banging away at a bass drum... Boom, boom, boom.

Beside tough looking wooden faced young and old pugs; each standing shoulder to shoulder.

'Roll-up come inside for a boxing extravaganza.'

You would pay your dough and go inside and stand beside a small ring with wood shavings on the floor.

A (usually) young victim would peal off his shirt and declare he was going to have a go to win some prize money by beating one of the trouppe much to the egging-on of the crowd.
Jimmy would size the contender-up and then chose which one of his boys would take up the challenge.

Other times he would send one of his boxers into the centre of the ring and ask the audience 'If they would like to have a go?'

Great entertainment.
....................................................................................................................................................................................
Greatly enjoyed, mate.

John