Despite the demands of the farm, Ian continued to take part enthusiastically in Saturday afternoon sports at Tambellup. Football--that is Australian Rules football--was the only game he played really well, and he was a ball follower on the district's Eighteen until about 1935. He played tennis, after a fashion, for many years, until, in a moment of self-realization, he tossed his racquet aside, muttering "there’s another blooming game I can’t play!" He never could play cricket, but loved the game and delighted in the successes of the local champions like Mervyn Bessen and Morgan Herbert, both of whom represented Western Australia against All England touring teams.
Another game Ian couldn't play was golf, but he kept on trying anyway, with successes rare enough to be recalled individually. His most sensational effort was almost making the green in two on a par-five dogleg. (At the Tambellup links a "green" was actually hard clay pan, lightly covered with sand.) He topped his iron shot on the first leg, and the ball streaked off at a peak altitude of about one foot above the fairway and, still traveling at high speed, disappeared in the bush at the corner. After an initially unsuccessful search, Ian guessed that the ball must have bounced off the corner marker, and on the assumption that the angle of reflection equaled the angle of incidence, it must have headed straight for the hole. Bingo--double bingo in fact since the ball had rolled almost all the way to the edge of the green. And in view of Ian's shaky close game, that is a good place to leave it and go on to another green-in-two anecdote.
The scene was the par-three hole, which was guarded by a grove of Yates trees that, in the decades since the club was laid out had grown to a height to tax the skills of the most accomplished wielders of the nine-iron. But to the understandable annoyance of the true golfers of the club, Ian consistently made the green in two at the "over the trees" hole. His trick was to use off the tee, not the nine-iron but the putter, and instead of going over the trees he went under them. He'd noticed that over the years the golfers’ feet had worn a smooth concave track winding downhill through the trees all the way to the green, and…. the rest is left as an exercise for the reader. It never occurred to Ian that his under-the-trees shot, though within the rules, was nevertheless contrary to to the basic idea of the game and so was seen by most players as cheating.
Ian’s skill in the Scottish art of tossing the caber came in handy every year at the Tambellup Agricultural Show. The event was actually tossing the sheaf—hurling a bagged sheaf of hay over a bar across the top of the football goal posts with a pitchfork—but the action was similar to that of tossing the caber. By concentrating his forces in an explosive and well-timed effort, Ian regularly won the event over taller and stronger men.
Through much of the 30s, Blanche was less sociable and outgoing than Ian. She disliked having visitors at Gilella, saying she was ashamed to be living in such a dump. Perhaps because of her illness, neither did she take part in the many of the social or sporting activities in Tambellup.
One exception was dancing; Blanche often prevailed upon Ian to attend the Friday-evening dance in the Town Hall. This regular event, like most other community get-togethers, was run by Frank "Snowy" Wilson, for decades the unofficial mayor of Tambellup. The music came from Snowy Wilson’s gramophone, accompanied by Snowy Wilson on drums. The popular dances of the time--the Pride of Erin, the Barn Dance--were sedate enough to allow Blanche the social contacts she needed. Perhaps because of the high regard she'd always felt for her father and brothers, she generally enjoyed the company of men more than of women.
Continue reading: 3.1.4 Chronicals of the 30s
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3. Ian and Blanche (1929-1975) Blanche (-1988)
3.1 Weathering the Depression (1929-1945)
3.1.2 Expansions and Improvements
This Topic3.1.3 Tambellup Diversions
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