July 4, 2019
A special ceremony will be held later this month to induct one of Cherbourg’s sporting greats, Jeffrey “Mitta” Dynevor, into the Queensland Boxing Hall of Fame.
Mitta (1938-2008) was the first Aboriginal boxer to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal.
Friends and family from across Queensland will be travelling to the Showmen’s Club at Yatala on July 21 for the induction ceremony.
The Boxing Hall of Fame was opened in 2006, and since then – boxers and boxing associates – have been inducted every year.
Other South Burnett boxers already in the Hall of Fame include Arthur Cripps (inducted 2011), Noel “Stumpy” Butwell (2008) and Arthur “Bullet” Bradley (2015).
Mitta took up boxing in the 1950s and won the Australian Amateur Flyweight title in 1958 and again in 1961 (despite chopping off the top of a finger in a workplace accident at the Cherbourg Joinery).
In 1962, along with fellow Cherbourg boxers Adrian Blair and Eddie Barney, he competed at the Commonwealth Games in Perth.
Mitta came home with gold after defeating Ghana’s Samuel Abbey in the final.
In 2016, friends, family members and former boxers honoured the champion with a commemoration at his graveside in Cherbourg after the Boxing Supporters Association of Qld Inc raised funds for a commemorative tombstone.
Three boxers and two boxing associates are being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.
As well as Mitta, they are:
- Gold Coast boxer Gavin Topp, who won the Australian Super Welterweight Title in 2000,
- Brisbane boxer Ronald Doo, who won the Australian Super Welterweight Title in 1990,
- Boxing associates, the Unwin family (the first time a family has been inducted), and
- Former boxer and Australian Olympic and Commonwealth Games team manager Paul Thompson
Guest speaker will be Jeff Horn’s trainer, Dundee Kim.
- Related article: Mitta Dynevor … A Champion Remembered
My uncle, Bobby Barkle, from Kingaroy, was their trainer. He would travel at least twice weekly to Cherbourg and bring them to Kingaroy for training and then take them back home, all for the love of the sport.
Bobby, along with other Kingaroy managers, travelled to Perth with the team. When Bobby died in a dreadful work accident, Jeff Dynevor wore his Australian blazer to the funeral.
My nephew is in the throes of compiling a book on the “Fighting Barkles”. It includes paragraphs on Cecil, a judge; Herbie, an Australian boxer; Jimmy, a judge; and Bobby, a trainer.