ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

That Marty is IMO a ripper of a poem

Disregarding all the historical value of the prompts and the disparity of the years - I reckon that had it happened like that Neville Bonner would be having a wow of a time. I used to work in the same building with him here at Ipswich in 1974 and he was a true gentleman, we often shared the lift together in the first high rise in Ipswich just near the David Trumpy bridge in East street.

Cribb and Foote certainly did have their own cricket team in the 1930's Maybe there was a Box Flat cricket team here at one time - I don't know , a lot of those mines did have social clubs and sporting clubs, but no doubt all these blokes are playing a similar game up in heaven as we speak, and it will be every bit as exciting as your poem and I reckon they'd be having a good chuckle reading it. Father Bill would be yelling out 'Howzat?

Cheers

Maureen

"Bloody Beauty".

Thank you,
Jim.

Obviously, you didn't stump me.
Jim.

You've certainly woven in all the detail of the game into a good story. I couldn't possibly do something like this, my knowledge of cricket games is miniscule for a start

The 31st July is actually the 40th Anniversary of the real Box Flat disaster. Commemorative services are being held here at the memorial at Swanbank. Seventeen lives were lost underground in the mine and one man died of injuries later. A quick decision had to be made because of issues with the mine explosion and the mine was sealed. The bodies were never retrieved.

Those lost in alphabetical order. Kenneth Frank Cobbin, William Alexander Drewett, William Rae Drysdale, Andrew Charles Haywood, Robert Lloyd Jones, William Alfred Marshall, John James McNamara, Walter Michael Murphy, Brian Henry Randolph, Brian Rasmussen, Daryl Trevor Reinhardt and Harold Charles Reinhardt-so often in mining families more than one member of a family were lost-John Dudley Roach, Lenard Arthur Rogers, Maurice John Tait, Mervyn Verrenkamp and Walter Benjamin Williams died on the day. Mr Clarence Edwin Wolski died later of his wounds.

The mine imploded at 2.47 am