The Bugle Boy
Armed with his bugle, Australia’s current and five-time national champion Stephen Clarke is practising his cry at his home on the NSW Central Coast.
“Most town criers have a bell – I’m a little different. Before I ring the bell, I sound a fanfare on the bugle,” says Stephen, 66.
It’s light work for Stephen who was in a 1980s woodshed band at Old Sydney Town. A fateful encounter with legendary Sydney town crier Graham Keating during a bush dance led him to be recruited.
The former retail worker had a “short” 25-year stint as the town crier at The Rocks in Sydney, a time he remembers fondly.
“One day it was about 38 degrees, and I was out in the direct sun in my regalia, and a woman came up and asked if I was hot,” says Stephen. “I was very naughty that day and replied, ‘Oooh, about 30 years ago I was!’”
His blue, gold and green regalia represents the NSW Central Coast with its “golden beaches, flanked by sparkling surf and lush green hinterland”.