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Part of Williams, Memories of the Past about Neath Fair 1928
Side shows ranged from fat ladies to performing fleas. Foremost among these shows were those of the noble art of boxing with bill Samuels,Jack Skarrot and professor Callis inviting the youth of south Wales to test their boxing ability against his lads
Many battles were fought out silhouetted against a picturesque background sometimes depicting some noted fistic celebrities, sometimes a scene of Dai St John gracefully bayoneting a boer on Majuba Hill
On such nights when local lads went out to test their strength the names of Thomas Thomas Penygraig ( who became middle weight champion of England ) Jim Courtney, Alf Mansfield, Bobby Dobbs, Darkie Thomas, Llewellyn Morgan's, the " Coffee Cooler," and Jim Driscoll ( later to be called "Peerless," the world over for his amazing skills in the squared rings), and last but not least Jimmy Dean (the Iron Man)---- "Who defied all , in the words of Jack Skarrot. "to make his face flatter than it was " all these names to conjure with. They were magic names, holding any audience in breathless and eager silence.
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