FLEETWOOD-SMITH'S SINGLET

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 7, 23 January 1937, Page 14

FLEETWOOD-SMITH'S SINGLET

Fleetwpod-Smith wore through ifrica a singlet he had worn through * ^ngland. "My lucky singlet," he calleu -h and it always went on under his cricketshirt. A poor, tattered old ram;iant it was, but it was the first article j-hat Fleetwood sought when he opened. his cricket bag at a new ground. it would have made a poor duster at ihe end, but Fleetwood-Smith would have been downcast had the day ever dawned when the "singlet" had gone astray. That reminds me of an English iour here four years ago. "Plum" Warner was one of the managers and easily the rnost cherished possession of the Englishman was a tattered old M.C.C. fiag that had seen years of cervice. The folours had faded, it was almost in shreds, but none who saw it will forgit the consternation of Warner one, morning on" the Sydney ground when the fiag could not be found. "That fiag has never yet fluttered on an English defeat," said the manager, Tt must be found. It must he found." The cricket ground staft scurried in all directions. Poor "Plum" Warner was in a frenzy and despair. He sat in the corner of the dressing room, a study in miserable desolation, but before that day was out the ilag had been found and fluttered again from he pole. One pf the staff, who had assisted in the search, had been using it for a boot polisher. "That old thing a fiag?" asked he when the big disccv„ry had been made.