STAPLES SOBBED WHEN HE LEFT SYDNEY WITH NONE TO SEE HIM OFF

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 525, 30 November 1928, Page 6

STAPLES SOBBED WHEN HE LEFT SYDNEY WITH NONE TO SEE HIM OFF

lapses are made at times by those in authority, but surely none more mournful than the departure from Sydney of Sam Staples, the English cricketer, on hjs way back to England under medical advice. When he left Sydney last week his comrades were . route for t>. staples Brisbane, but r ap ? rt , f 2 >n ?, that > Staples left the Central Railway Station with not a soul to say good-bye, with the exception of a solitary pressman. I y > * a * ,n .9 le member of the Board of Control or the New South Wales Cricket Association saw him off, or even a cricketer or a member of the public. A Sydney “Guardian" reporter thus describes how he discovered Staples waiting for the train to leave for Melbourne: ‘'Sitting back alone in his carriage, he was sobbing like a man who has been suddenly bereft of his best friend. After a while, he said in reply to a pressman’s endeavour to cheer him up: ‘I suppose the boys are now well on their way to Brisbane.’ Then with head lowered, ‘Wish I was with them, too.’ When surprise was expressed that no Sydney cricketers or members of the association were present to say good-bye, Staples merely said: ‘I would rather say nothing about that/ ”