Wayne Peake
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Dr Wayne Peake wrote A Xmas Car Rally Puzzle, Sydney Racing in the 1970s, Wild Jack Peake of Peakhurst, Sydney's Pony Racecourses, & The Gambler's Ghost.
Articles by Wayne Peake
Game changers: how one team’s dominance transformed rugby league forever Original
One championship is an achievement for any sports team and one rightly celebrated by players and fans alike. Imagine a team winning 11 titles in a row. That’s what St George did in Sydney’s rugby league competition . This incredible dominance, and rival clubs’ frustration with it, sparked a radical change in rugby league – the move away from unlimited tackles to the four-tackle rule in 1967.
Almanac Life: The Deaths of Walter Edward and Walter Leslie Peake on The Western Front, 1917
My name is Wayne Peake. My family is from Peakhurst, near Hurstville in Sydney — which was named after my ancestor, John Robert Peake, who bought land there in 1838. Every Anzac Day and Armistice Day, my father would retell the story of how his uncle Walter Edward Peake, known as Wally , was killed by a stray German shell on the Western Front, several hours after the Armistice came into effect at 11 am on 11 November 1918.
Two Odes to the Joys of Going Racing…55 Years Apart
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE RACECOURSE On race-days from the city far, I’d travel with some dear old cronies, All eager as true sportsman are, To win a fortune on the ponies. My cobbers talked of naught but horse, Of horse at Redfern, horse at Mascot, Nor ceased they till we reached the course, To revel in the joys of Ascot.
Almanac Horseracing: Maybe the Last Great Post-race Demonstration – The 1975 McKell Cup at Rosehill
Noisy post-race demonstrations, at their most virulent during the Depression years of the 1930s, were in decline on Sydney racecourses by the 1970s, but far from extinct, as they have become in the post-modern era. Leading journalist Bert Lillye thought their waning might have been because money was not as hard to come by as it had been in the thirties.
Almanac Fiction: Harry calls a winner
(Anyone familiar with famous post-war Australian race callers will have a fair idea who Harry Trump is based on.) Harry Trump had been a race caller for more than thirty years. He’d started out in the days when broadcasters were banned from racecourses, and had had to rely on their own inventiveness to call races from the outer.
Almanac Cricket: Comparisons between the Perth Ashes Test and The Battle of Hastings in 1066
I am not sure if anyone has come up with this analogy before but – I think back to Day Two at Perth. It was I think like 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. There was an unwarranted sniff of victory for the Poms mid-afternoon, the Anglo-Saxon shield wall broke and individual Poms chased the enemy down Senlac Hill. Prematurely. Within fifteen minutes the overbold were cut down, the battle was lost and slaughter ensued. To return to our Footy Almanac home page click HERE.
Almanac Book (Plans): A tour of old western Sydney for an upcoming book
On 17 December my family went on an expedition around western Sydney conducting research for a future publication with the working title ‘A Christmas Car Rally Mystery’. The route taken was Windsor Road, Londonderry Road, The Northern Road, Park Road, Silverdale Road and Marsh Road. Some of the rally ‘checkpoints’ checked out were the Battle of Vingear Hill Memorial at Rouse Hill, the memorial to the legendary 19th c.
Almanac Horseracing - Confessions of a teenage racegoer Part IV: the 1980 Golden Slipper Stakes and other Yobbo headline grabbers
Prologue: The remarkable win of my favourite jockey, Kevin Moses, on Dark Eclipse in the 1980 Golden Slipper Stakes kicked off what proved to be a great year in sport, capped by the win of Canterbury Bankstown in the last-ever NSWRL Grand Final played on a Saturday.
Almanac Horseracing - Confessions of a teenage racegoer of the 1970s Part III: Melbourne Cup mayhem
Continuing the series of accounts of the misadventures of ‘Ton’ Currie and the Yobboes: this time, of their various pilgrimages to Melbourne… Giddy in Gundagai Apart from the occasional South Seas cruise and awards nights, the Yobboes’ primary corporate activity continued to be race-going, and the highlight of that was the annual trip to the Melbourne Cup.
Almanac Horseracing - Confessions of a teenage racegoer of the 1970s Part II: ‘Ton’ Currie and the Yobboes
Prologue: this is the second in a series of abstracts from the chapter ‘Confessions of a Teenage Racegoer’ from the book Sydney Racing in the 1970s: an Illustrated Companion. I went racing on my own a few years more but by the end of the 1970s I had become part of an extended network of teenage racegoers. By the early 1980s, its members had reached man’s estate and developed what might be called class-consciousness.
Almanac Horseracing: Confessions of a teenage racegoer of the 1970s
Prologue: This article is the first in a series of extracts from a book published in November 2023, titled Sydney Racing in the 1970s: an Illustrated Companion. I realise that there are many similarities in terms of subject matter and approach (humorous) with John Harms’s terrific Memoirs of a Mug Punter, which I discovered (or was made aware of) only this year.
The biggest losers - Openforum
The story goes that the late billionaire Australian media magnate Kerry Packer once visited a Las Vegas casino, where a Texan was bragging about his ranch and how many millions it was worth. Packer produced a coin from his pocket and said: “I’ll toss you for it: my cash against your ranch”. The Texan declined. This story may or may not be true.
Opinion: The biggest losers-how Australians became the world's most enthusiastic gamblers
The story goes that the late billionaire Australian media magnate Kerry Packer once visited a Las Vegas casino, where a Texan was bragging about his ranch and how many millions it was worth. Packer produced a coin from his pocket and said: "I'll toss you for it: my cash against your ranch." The Texan declined. This story may or may not be true.
The biggest losers: how Australians became the world’s most enthusiastic gamblers
The story goes that the late billionaire Australian media magnate Kerry Packer once visited a Las Vegas casino, where a Texan was bragging about his ranch and how many millions it was worth. Packer produced a coin from his pocket and said: “I’ll toss you for it: my cash against your ranch”. The Texan declined. This story may or may not be true.
how Australians became the world’s most enthusiastic gamblers
Written by Wayne Peake, Adjunct research fellow, School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Western Sydney University The story goes that the late billionaire Australian media magnate Kerry Packer once visited a Las Vegas casino, where a Texan was bragging about his ranch and how many millions it was worth. Packer produced a coin from his pocket and said[1]: “I’ll toss you for it: my cash against your ranch”. The Texan declined. This story may or may not be true.
What are the greatest upsets in NRL grand final history?
The Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm will contest the National Rugby League (NRL) grand final on Sunday. Betting markets have them pretty much equal favourites. However, history shows grand finals don’t always go to plan. But what are the biggest upsets in NRL grand final history? Using a combination of formlines during the season and in finals, betting odds, media coverage and past performances, here are some of the most outlandish upsets in rugby league’s history.
Winx smashed racing records. A new documentary tells her story on and off the track
As a racing historian, I knew about Winx’s story long before I stepped into a preview screening of A Horse Named Winx, a new documentary tracing the mare’s great career. But I suspected many people outside the cinema did not know it, which I think is a shame given the magnitude of Winx’s achievements. Will this new production see Winx make ground on legendary racehorses such as Gunsynd and Phar Lap in the public’s esteem? I hope so.
Winx smashed racing records. A new documentary tells her story on and off the track
As a racing historian, I knew about Winx’s story long before I stepped into a preview screening of A Horse Named Winx, a new documentary tracing the mare’s great career. But I suspected many people outside the cinema did not know it, which I think is a shame given the magnitude of Winx’s achievements. Will this new production see Winx make ground on legendary racehorses such as Gunsynd and Phar Lap in the public’s esteem? I hope so.
From Obstacle Course Swimming to Tug-of-War, How Some of the More Unusual Olympic Games Sports Came To Be
| July 25th, 2024 'A Foot Race at the Olympian Games', Ancient Greece. The Olympian Games, the great Greek athletic festival in honour of Zeus, were held at Olympia every fourth year at the first full moon after the summer solstice. Photo: Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images The Latin motto of the Olympic Games, which Baron Pierre de Coubertin – known as the father of the Olympics – resurrected at Athens in 1896, is “citius, altius, fortius – communiter”.
Anyone for obstacle course swimming? How some of the more unusual Olympic Games sports came to be
The Latin motto of the Olympic Games, which Baron Pierre de Coubertin – known as the father of the Olympics – resurrected at Athens in 1896, is “citius, altius, fortius – communiter”. In English, this means “faster, higher, stronger – together”. The addition of “together” in 2021 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which oversees the games and decides who hosts them, is significant. It demonstrates its more recent desire to be a progressive and inclusive organisation.
The weird and wonderful history of the Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is sometimes deplored but the central place it holds in Australian mainstream culture is rarely disputed. And its promotion came quickly. Its first running in 1861 drew about 4,000 spectators. In 1870 an estimated 30,000 attended and 100,000 was claimed for the 1880 running – about a third of the population of Melbourne. Even allowing for some boasting spurred by colonial rivalry, these are remarkable figures. Savvy writers soon recognised the impact of the Cup.
The race that stops the nation also holds many weird and wonderful stories
The Melbourne Cup is sometimes deplored but the central place it holds in Australian mainstream culture is rarely disputed. And its promotion came quickly. Its first running in 1861 drew about 4,000 spectators. In 1870 an estimated 30,000 attended and 100,000 was claimed for the 1880 running – about a third of the population of Melbourne. Even allowing for some boasting spurred by colonial rivalry, these are remarkable figures. Savvy writers soon recognised the impact of the Cup.
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