Now for the Kings

I was amused as I imagined Nick Bergin struggling back up the slope from the creek with his anvil. It brought back many memories from earlier days, of events and of course the "stories". One such memory is from "New Years Days" at Lake Merrin. A sheaf tossing event was on the menu. There were two poles, like the AFL goal posts, but higher and closer together. A light pole or bar was raised by ropes and pulleys, higher and higher as contestants dropped out, a bit like the high jump set up. The sheaf was a sewn up Hessian bag, shaped like a torpedo and stuffed with straw and projected into the air with a 2 or 3 tined pitchfork.
See http://homepage.eircom.net/~irishthrowersclub/Sheaf%20Tossing.html
Sheaf tossing is classified as one of the heavy athletics.
Well, at Lake Merrin, there was this big man, big in all directions, I think his name was Ted or Harry James, he had balance rhythm and strength. He would send the sheaf even higher than the poles but sadly often lacked accuracy as the sheaf had to pass over the bar.
My own family has its own stories, two of my deceased brothers, Cyril and Murray were big powerful men. People from Quambatook still talk about Murray lifting his AJS 500 Motorcycle over the farm fences in order to take short cuts.
This is a picture of Murray, he makes the fence look low!




I am interested in genealogy, (this gene doesn't kick in until you are at least 60 years of age.
People talk about finding skeletons in cupboards but what they really want to find are "Kings".
My wife Peta, had Rudyard Kipling for a cousin! While Holt folklore has G/Grandfather Matthew having a brother who was the weight lifting champion of England. As far as I can see this has been a little exaggerated but I got in touch with Fred Holt from Koonwarra, whose grandfather was a cousin to Matthew. His Grandfather John was educated at Cambridge and had some notable heavy athletes in close ancestry.



John Holt, seated front centre, of course.

As I read Old and New testaments of the Bible I notice that to the Jewish people genealogy was very important, but I also take note that the Apostle Paul though his credentials through line of descent were impeccable, he counted all that as nothing that he might be found in the line of Jesus Christ ,(adopted by God as his child)
I will read again Psalm 147 verse 10
God does not delight in the strength of the horse,
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man,
The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in his mercy.