Territory Day hero tells: Why I copped a cracker to my knackers

GREAT balls of fire. A true Territory Day hero has told of why he copped a cracker to his knackers. WATCH the VIDEO here

BEING hit in the ballsack by a wayward firework isn’t enough to turn cracker fan Daryl Gilbert off Territory Day.

“If anything I’d be telling more mates to come up, because it’s such an awesome day,” he said.

“It’s what Australia is about.

“It should be a national holiday.”

WHY I stuck a cracker up my clacker

WHY I stuck a bunger in my bunghole

WHY I’ve got a banger on my wanger

Monday night, the Melbourne-based funeral director was in Darwin celebrating in style with nine of his mates – most of whom flew in from interstate for the group’s annual Tradies Cup celebrations.

Daryl Gilbert at the Howard Springs Tavern on Tuesday. Mr Gilbert copped a cracker in the knackers on Territory Day. Picture: Keri Megelus

After a few brews, the crew moved on to the Darwin Ski Club, where they let off a few crackers from the sand.

There, Mr Gilbert’s mate Andy Fitzsimons lit the offending cracker, which wobbled and started heading to the bar.

“We were all conscious of kids, families – the bar,” Mr Gilbert said.

TOP STORIES

PICTURE GALLERY: How we celebrated Territory Day

UBER Eats to to launch in Darwin on Wednesday

SHOOTING victim’s family to protest Hoffmann not guilty plea

VIDEO emerges of man-eating croc

$10 mil Rapid Creek flood mitigation project completed

“It would have gone straight into the bar and the kids.”

Quickly, Mr Gilbert moved to block the cracker, but his 6’4 frame meant the firework hit him directly in his groin.

“It got me in the ‘el kajoolies’, the old ‘Daryl Gilberts’,” he said later.

“It hurt like hell, all the boys scattered and looked around.

“I actually thought it was damaged – so I snuck off and had a bit of a look and all good, apart from the walnut and the mandarin. They were purple.”

Mr Gilbert’s shirt was also burnt and his pants singed by the heat.

“It was all in good fun, and honestly the day was fantastic,” he said.

“Don’t ever stop it – its fantastic.”

OUR best value NT News subscription deal yet: $1 a week for the first 12 weeks

The cracker flicked off Mr Gilbert’s crotch and then struck mate Gary Anderson in the arm.

Mr Anderson was thrown to the ground by the force of the ricocheting ball banger.

“It made me feel better to see him on the ground,” Mr Gilbert laughed.

Mr Anderson said he was just grateful it didn’t hit him in the nuts.

“It was outrageous, out there it was a war zone,” he said.

Mr Gilbert echoed the same enthusiasm.

COMPETITION: WIN a motorhome or caravan, plus other daily prizes up for grabs!

“I got one in the nuts but it was one in a million, might buy myself a Tatts Lotto ticket,” he said.

“It wouldn’t turn me off it.”

Mr Fitzsimons, who lit the jatz cracker, said he was just grateful it didn’t hit a kid.

“Everything ended up fine – not for Deano,” he said.

Mr Gilbert said his balls were still tender from the injury – but there was one perk.

“As a male, you hope one day you’ve got big cahoonas .... and that’s how they are (now),” he said.

It’s not the first time a Territory Day enthusiast’s nether regions has been injured by a cracker. In 2012 a man was hospitalised after putting a cracker up his clacker.