Chuck Fleetwood-Smith
Encyclopedia
Leslie O'Brien "Chuck" Fleetwood-Smith (30 March 1908 – 16 March 1971) was a cricketer
who played for Victoria
and Australia. Known universally as "Chuck", he was the "wayward genius" of Australian cricket during the 1930s. A slow bowler
who could spin the ball harder and further than his contemporaries, Fleetwood-Smith was regarded as a rare talent, but his cricket suffered from a lack of self-discipline that also characterised his personal life. In addition, his career coincided with those of Bill O'Reilly
and Clarrie Grimmett
, two spinners named in the ten inaugural members of the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame
; as a result he played only ten Test matches
but left a lasting impression with one delivery in particular. His dismissal of Wally Hammond
in the fourth Test of the 1936–37 Ashes
series has been compared to Shane Warne
's ball of the century
. He has the unwanted record of conceding the most runs by a bowler in a Test match innings
.
Holding little regard for the other disciplines of the game, batting and fielding, he attracted a lot of attention with his rare style of bowling: left-arm wrist spin
. Sometimes called the "chinaman", or left-arm unorthodox, few bowlers of this type have appeared in major cricket. Certainly, Fleetwood-Smith was the first chinaman bowler to have an impact on Australian cricket and play for the Test team.
Fleetwood-Smith was ambidextrous
and could bowl with either arm during his youth. His choice of an unconventional bowling style reflected his reputation as an eccentric. After his playing days finished, Fleetwood-Smith succumbed to alcoholism
and spent many years homeless on the streets of Melbourne
, sometimes sleeping rough a few hundred metres from the stadium where he played many of his best matches, the Melbourne Cricket Ground
. His arrest in 1969 brought attention to his plight and a number of influential people rallied to his cause.
in the Northern Grampians area of western Victoria
. The family was well known in the district for their long involvement with the local newspaper, and for Fleetwood Smith's association with the organising committee of the Stawell Gift
. During his infancy, Fleetwood-Smith was given the nickname "Chuck", a contraction of the polo
term "chukka". After attending primary school in Stawell, he enrolled at Xavier College when the family moved to Melbourne in 1917. In the early 1920s, he was a member of Xavier's powerful First XI, which included the future Test player Leo O'Brien
and Karl Schneider
, who played first-class cricket while still at the school, but died of leukaemia at the age of 23. The team won the Victorian Public Schools
premiership in 1924, but Fleetwood-Smith left the school soon after. It is believed that he was expelled, although the school records are incomplete and do not mention this.
Returning to Stawell, where his family had relocated a year earlier, Fleetwood-Smith completed his education locally and turned out for the Stawell cricket team in the Wimmera
league. In three seasons from 1927–28, he captured 317 wickets for Stawell and took seven wickets in a representative match, playing for the Country Colts against the City Colts. He came to the attention of cricket clubs in Melbourne while representing the league in a Country Week tournament. Around this time, his father decided to combine his first and last names, and the family styled themselves as Fleetwood-Smith.
in the district cricket
competition for the 1930–31 season. It was a challenging choice for a young bowler as the team possessed an outstanding spin attack—Test bowlers Bert Ironmonger
and Don Blackie
were members of the club. He became a regular in the club's First XI during his second season and in one match claimed 16 wickets for 82 runs (16/82) against Carlton
, prompting his selection for the Victorian second team. The remainder of the summer was meteoric for Fleetwood-Smith. He made his first-class
debut against Tasmania
and captured ten wickets; in his first international against the touring South Africans he returned 6/80 in the first innings; and on his Sheffield Shield debut, he took 11 wickets for the match against South Australia. He led the first-class bowling average
s for Victoria and capped the season by playing in St Kilda's premiership team. In the winter of 1932, Fleetwood-Smith joined a private tour of the United States
and Canada
, organised by the former Test spin bowler Arthur Mailey
. Playing 51 matches, he totalled 249 wickets at an average of less than eight runs each as his unique style bewildered the local batsmen.
series. However, in Ironmonger, Bill O'Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett, the Australian team possessed a strong spin bowling attack and Fleetwood-Smith needed to supplant one of the trio to gain selection. Although he took 50 first-class wickets for the season (at 21.90 average, including 9/36 in an innings against Tasmania), his bowling received rough treatment from Don Bradman in a match against New South Wales
. In the tour match against England that followed, Wally Hammond
was given specific instructions to attack the inexperienced Fleetwood-Smith and remove him from consideration for the Test matches, which he accomplished during an innings of 203. The England manager, Plum Warner
, later wrote that too much attention was given to this performance and he was sanguine about Fleetwood-Smith's potential as a Test bowler. Despite Grimmett's absence from the Australian team—he was dropped after the third Test—the Australian selectors opted not to gamble by choosing Fleetwood-Smith. Instead, they called on the all-rounders Ernie Bromley
and "Perka" Lee
.
The following season, Fleetwood-Smith transferred from St Kilda to the Melbourne club
as they had found him employment. He collected 41 wickets for Victoria in seven matches, with a best match return of 12/158 against South Australia. This earned him a place in the Australian team for the 1934 tour of England
. With Grimmett returned to favour, Fleetwood-Smith was unable to gain selection in the Test matches despite taking 106 first-class wickets (at a cost of 19.20 runs each) on the tour. Initially sceptical of his ability, Wisden
thought that his bowling was "erratic" during the early part of the tour, but that he improved dramatically during the second half of the season. Against Sussex
, Northants
and HDG Leveson-Gower's XI, he took ten wickets for the match. In the latter game, he bowled an inspired spell to Maurice Leyland
, the most prolific English batsman of the Test series. Leyland had great success in dealing with O'Reilly and Grimmett, but could not fathom Fleetwood-Smith's various deliveries.
During the 1934–35 season, Fleetwood-Smith set a new Sheffield Shield record of 60 wickets in six matches, which remained until Colin Miller
claimed 67 wickets in 11 matches in 1997–98. He dominated Victoria's bowling—the next best was Ernie McCormick
with 22 wickets—as the team won the Sheffield Shield. In the match that effectively decided the title, Fleetwood-Smith took 15 wickets against a New South Wales team that included nine Test players. He guided the Melbourne club to the premiership in the district competition with seven wickets in the final against Collingwood
. Chosen to tour South Africa during the following summer, he made his belated Test debut in the opening match of the series at Durban. Taking the wicket of Ken Viljoen
in his first over, Fleetwood-Smith finished the match with five wickets. He played the next two Tests (for four wickets), but injured his hand while fielding his own bowling in a tour match against Border
. This forced him out of the remaining matches on the tour and caused him problems in the forthcoming months.
, he contributed to Australia's victory with a valuable innings as a nightwatchman
and 5/124 in England's second innings as they were bowled out for 323, chasing a victory target of 689 runs.
Immediately after the match, Fleetwood-Smith, O'Reilly, Leo O'Brien and Stan McCabe
were summoned to appear before four of Australia's leading cricket administrators, who read a prepared statement accusing the team of excessive drinking, inattention to fitness and disloyalty to the captain. The meeting ended in confusion when the four players were told that they were not being held responsible for the matters raised. This incident has been the subject of conjecture for many years. It is often interpreted as an illustration of a sectarian divide in Australian cricket during the period. Fleetwood-Smith attended Xavier (a Roman Catholic school) with O'Brien, while McCabe and O'Reilly were raised as Catholics in rural New South Wales; at least two of the administrators present were members of Masonic
lodges. Several of the senior players wanted McCabe as captain in place of Bradman, whose relationship with O'Reilly was strained. However, Fleetwood-Smith's presence is puzzling as he missed the first two Tests, to which the administrators specifically referred. Greg Growden, his biographer, records that Fleetwood-Smith had an unlikely friendship with Bradman (in that the two men were of opposite personalities), which later cooled after an unknown disagreement not associated with this incident.
Fleetwood-Smith took four wickets in England's first innings of the fourth Test at Adelaide. Set a target of 392 runs to win, England reached 3/148 in their second innings by stumps on the fifth day, with their leading batsman Wally Hammond 39 not out and the match evenly poised. At the beginning of the last day's play, Bradman gave Fleetwood-Smith the ball and told him, simply, that the fate of the match was in his hands. Before Hammond could add to his overnight score, Fleetwood-Smith delivered a perfectly-flighted off-break that drew Hammond forward as it curved away in the air. It then pitched and spun in the opposite direction to its trajectory, went between Hammond's bat and pad, and bowled him. The rest of the English batting fell for the addition of only 94 runs as Fleetwood-Smith advanced his figures to 6/110, giving him ten wickets for the match. Australia had levelled the series at two-all. Neville Cardus
wrote:
O'Reilly described it as the best delivery he ever witnessed in a major cricket match. Bradman wrote, "If ever the result of a Test match can be said to have been decided by a single ball, this was the occasion." After the match, thousands of spectators gathered in front of the pavilion and chanted his name until he came out to greet them. Later, he was given a civic reception in his home town of Stawell to celebrate his achievement.
Australia amassed 604 in the first innings of the deciding Test at Melbourne, then bowled England out twice to win the match by an innings and 200 runs, thus retaining the Ashes. Fleetwood-Smith claimed four wickets to leave him second to Bill O'Reilly.
and 8/74 against Notts
. Wisden noted that he succeeded mainly against batsmen unfamiliar with his method and offered this ambivalent assessment: "He could not be written down as a failure but he certainly fell below expectations ..." However, he played in every Test of the series for the only time in his career. His seven wickets in the fourth Test at Leeds
gave crucial support to O'Reilly, whose 10/122 was the major factor in the victory that enabled Australia to retain The Ashes.
In the final match of the series at The Oval
, England went in first on a pitch ideal for batting and made a record total of 7/903, with their opening batsman Len Hutton
making 364 to break Bradman's Ashes record score. England won by the overwhelming margin of an innings and 579 runs. Fleetwood-Smith conceded a world record of 298 runs in his 87 overs, for the wicket of Wally Hammond. By contrast, O'Reilly's 85 overs cost him 178 runs. This had a dramatic impact on his average. Before the match it was 31.02; after, it was 37.38.
For Victoria, Fleetwood-Smith captured 246 wickets at 24.56 runs per wicket in 40 Sheffield Shield matches, and in 51 matches for Victoria from 1931–32 to 1939–40, Fleetwood-Smith captured 295 wickets at 24.39. He captured five wickets in an innings 31 times, 10 times going on to capture ten wickets in a match, both records for Victoria.
(spinning away) and the top spinner
, which Hammond believed to be his best ball. He did not bother with varying his pace or flight: the only concession he made to tactical considerations was a signal to the wicket-keeper, to let him know which of the three variations he was about to deliver. Therefore, he rarely engaged in an extended strategic battle with a batsman in the manner of Grimmett or O'Reilly. The danger to the batsman lay in his unpredictability; he bowled all of his variations with no discernible change to his bowling action and needed no help from the pitch to extract turn. Bradman summarised:
in 1996 as one of the ten inaugural members, and they were the only two spinners in the first ten. Fleetwood-Smith's 42 Test wickets placed him fifth on the list of Australian wicket-takers for the period despite playing in only ten of Australia's 39 Test matches. The only fast bowlers of note on this list are Tim Wall
(48 wickets in 17 matches) and Ernie McCormick
(36 wickets in 12 matches). Apart from the occasions when rain intervened to create a sticky wicket
, the period was characterised by pitches prepared to favour batting. This so-called "doping" of pitches created controversy at the time and even Bradman argued for greater consideration for the bowlers. Despite his flaws in other areas of the game, Fleetwood-Smith's ability to take wickets quickly was invaluable. In first-class cricket, his strike rate of 44.16 balls per wicket is superior to those of Grimmett and O'Reilly. However, his economy rate (i.e. the number of runs conceded per over) is almost 50% higher than that of O'Reilly, reflecting his relative inaccuracy.
. While playing in England, he liked to chant Lord Hawke's
name and chat to the spectators with his back to the play. His inattention to batting and fielding exasperated his teammates; he was quoted as saying, "if you can't be the best batsman in the world, you might as well be the worst."
In addition to the affectation of his hyphenated surname, Fleetwood-Smith usually listed his year of birth as 1910 (thus reducing his age by two years) and propagated a story among journalists that he became a left-arm bowler when he broke his right arm during his youth.
. The wedding was a society event widely covered by the newspapers. Her family was well known in Melbourne for owning a prosperous soft-drink business; her father was an alderman
of the city. Fleetwood-Smith had a reputation as a ladies' man who traded on his resemblance to the actor Clark Gable
, and his infidelities after his marriage were not discreet. He joined the Elliotts' business as a sales representative, which brought him into daily contact with the pub trade and increased his alcohol consumption.
After the outbreak of World War II
, Fleetwood-Smith enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force
and was posted to the Army's Physical and Recreational Training School at Frankston
where he served alongside Don Bradman as a Warrant Officer
. He was involved in a collision with a nightcart when driving a borrowed army vehicle and the matter ended in court where he was ordered to pay costs. After less than a year's service, he was given a medical discharge in February 1941.
Fleetwood-Smith played the first post-war cricket season of 1945–46 for the Melbourne club and then retired with a tally of 252 wickets at 17.52 average in 74 district cricket matches, including four premiership teams. By this time, his marriage had broken down and his wife petitioned for divorce in June 1946, which was granted the following year. This alienated him from his family in Stawell as his ex-wife remained close to the Fleetwood-Smiths. He had lost his job with the Elliotts' company during the war. Fleetwood-Smith married Beatrix Collins (the sister of a teammate at Melbourne) at a registry office on 9 July 1948. He worked intermittently at menial jobs and his drinking increased; his second marriage also failed.
His arrest for vagrancy and theft in March 1969 was widely covered by the media. Appalled by his circumstance, a number of influential friends from his cricketing days, such as the former Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies
, aided him by organising him legal assistance. The hearing was later adjourned, and he reconciled with his wife Bea after committing to remain sober. They lived together again for the last years of his life. However, the years of homelessness left him in poor health, and he died from cancer at St Vincent's Hospital
in Fitzroy
a fortnight before his 63rd birthday.
Cricketer
A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....
who played for Victoria
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
and Australia. Known universally as "Chuck", he was the "wayward genius" of Australian cricket during the 1930s. A slow bowler
Spin bowling
Spin bowling is a technique used for bowling in the sport of cricket. Practitioners are known as spinners or spin bowlers.-Purpose:The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ball with rapid rotation so that when it bounces on the pitch it will deviate, thus making it difficult for the...
who could spin the ball harder and further than his contemporaries, Fleetwood-Smith was regarded as a rare talent, but his cricket suffered from a lack of self-discipline that also characterised his personal life. In addition, his career coincided with those of Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (cricketer)
William Joseph "Bill" O'Reilly , often known as Tiger O'Reilly, was an Australian cricketer, rated as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. Following his retirement from playing, he became a well-respected cricket writer and broadcaster.O'Reilly was one of the best spin bowlers to...
and Clarrie Grimmett
Clarrie Grimmett
Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett was a cricketer; although born in New Zealand, he played most of his cricket in Australia. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper.Grimmett was born in Caversham a suburb of Dunedin,...
, two spinners named in the ten inaugural members of the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame
Australian Cricket Hall of Fame
The Australian Cricket Hall of Fame is a part of the Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum in the National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This Hall of Fame commemorates the greatest Australian cricketers of all time....
; as a result he played only ten Test matches
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
but left a lasting impression with one delivery in particular. His dismissal of Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Walter Reginald "Wally" Hammond was an English Test cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning his career as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England...
in the fourth Test of the 1936–37 Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
series has been compared to Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
's ball of the century
Ball of the Century
The Ball of the Century, also referred to as the Gatting Ball or simply That Ball, is the name given to a cricket delivery bowled by Australia's Shane Warne to England's Mike Gatting. The event occurred on day two of the first Test of the 1993 Ashes series, which took place at Old Trafford,...
. He has the unwanted record of conceding the most runs by a bowler in a Test match innings
Innings
An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is...
.
Holding little regard for the other disciplines of the game, batting and fielding, he attracted a lot of attention with his rare style of bowling: left-arm wrist spin
Left-arm unorthodox spin
Left-arm unorthodox spin, or chinaman, is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket using the hand wrist. Left-arm unorthodox spin bowlers use a wrist hand action to spin the ball which turns from off to leg side of the cricket pitch...
. Sometimes called the "chinaman", or left-arm unorthodox, few bowlers of this type have appeared in major cricket. Certainly, Fleetwood-Smith was the first chinaman bowler to have an impact on Australian cricket and play for the Test team.
Fleetwood-Smith was ambidextrous
Ambidexterity
Ambidexterity is the state of being equally adept in the use of both left and right appendages . It is one of the most famous varieties of cross-dominance. People that are naturally ambidextrous are rare, with only one out of one hundred people being naturally ambidextrous...
and could bowl with either arm during his youth. His choice of an unconventional bowling style reflected his reputation as an eccentric. After his playing days finished, Fleetwood-Smith succumbed to alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
and spent many years homeless on the streets of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, sometimes sleeping rough a few hundred metres from the stadium where he played many of his best matches, the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
. His arrest in 1969 brought attention to his plight and a number of influential people rallied to his cause.
Early years
The third child of Fleetwood Smith and his wife Frances (née Swan), Fleetwood-Smith was born at StawellStawell, Victoria
Stawell , is a town in the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia. The town is located in Shire of Northern Grampians Local Government Area, west-north-west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Stawell had a population of 6,035....
in the Northern Grampians area of western Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. The family was well known in the district for their long involvement with the local newspaper, and for Fleetwood Smith's association with the organising committee of the Stawell Gift
Stawell Gift
The Stawell Gift is Australia's oldest and richest short distance running race. It is run over every Easter weekend by the Stawell Athletic Club, with the main race finals on the holiday Monday, at Central Park, Stawell in the Grampian Mountains district of western Victoria.The race is run on grass...
. During his infancy, Fleetwood-Smith was given the nickname "Chuck", a contraction of the polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
term "chukka". After attending primary school in Stawell, he enrolled at Xavier College when the family moved to Melbourne in 1917. In the early 1920s, he was a member of Xavier's powerful First XI, which included the future Test player Leo O'Brien
Leo O'Brien
For the former US congressman from New York, see Leo W. O'BrienFor the former Wisconsin politician, see Leo P. O'BrienLeo Patrick Joseph O'Brien was an Australian cricketer who played in 5 Tests from 1932 to 1936.He attended both Xavier College and St Patrick's College, Ballarat....
and Karl Schneider
Karl Schneider
Karl Joseph Schneider was a cricketer who played for Victoria and South Australia . A tiny man at just 157cm tall, he was born in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn and was a specialist left-hand batsman who occasionally bowled right-arm wrist spin...
, who played first-class cricket while still at the school, but died of leukaemia at the age of 23. The team won the Victorian Public Schools
Associated Public Schools of Victoria
The Associated Public Schools of Victoria are a group of eleven elite independent schools in Victoria, Australia, similar to the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales in New South Wales....
premiership in 1924, but Fleetwood-Smith left the school soon after. It is believed that he was expelled, although the school records are incomplete and do not mention this.
Returning to Stawell, where his family had relocated a year earlier, Fleetwood-Smith completed his education locally and turned out for the Stawell cricket team in the Wimmera
Wimmera
The Wimmera is a region in the west of the Australian state of Victoria.It covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Australia border and north of the Great Dividing Range...
league. In three seasons from 1927–28, he captured 317 wickets for Stawell and took seven wickets in a representative match, playing for the Country Colts against the City Colts. He came to the attention of cricket clubs in Melbourne while representing the league in a Country Week tournament. Around this time, his father decided to combine his first and last names, and the family styled themselves as Fleetwood-Smith.
Cricket career
Fleetwood-Smith moved to Melbourne to play with St KildaSt Kilda Cricket Club
St Kilda Cricket Club is a cricket club in the elite club competition of Melbourne, Australia, known as Victorian Premier Cricket.Its home ground is the St Kilda Cricket Ground, often called the Junction Oval.-History:...
in the district cricket
Victorian Premier Cricket
Victorian Premier Cricket is the elite club cricket competition in the state of Victoria, administered by Cricket Victoria. Each club fields four teams of adult players and usually play on weekends and public holidays. Matches are played on turf wickets under limited-time rules, with most results...
competition for the 1930–31 season. It was a challenging choice for a young bowler as the team possessed an outstanding spin attack—Test bowlers Bert Ironmonger
Bert Ironmonger
Herbert Ironmonger was a Victorian and Australian cricketer....
and Don Blackie
Don Blackie
Donald Dearness Blackie was an Australian Test cricketer who played only three Tests in the summer of 1928-29. At 46 years 253 days of age at the time of his Test debut, Blackie remains the oldest debutant in Australian Test cricket.-External links:*...
were members of the club. He became a regular in the club's First XI during his second season and in one match claimed 16 wickets for 82 runs (16/82) against Carlton
Carlton Cricket Club
Carlton Cricket Club is an Australian cricket team that competes in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. The club was formed in 1864 and plays its home matches at Princes Park in North Carlton. Known as the Blues, Carlton has won eight First XI premierships, most recently in the...
, prompting his selection for the Victorian second team. The remainder of the summer was meteoric for Fleetwood-Smith. He made his first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut against Tasmania
Tasmanian Tigers
The Tasmanian cricket team, nicknamed the Tigers, represents the Australian state of Tasmania in cricket tournaments. They compete annually in the Australian domestic senior men's cricket season, which currently consists of the first-class Sheffield Shield, the limited overs Ford Ranger Cup, and...
and captured ten wickets; in his first international against the touring South Africans he returned 6/80 in the first innings; and on his Sheffield Shield debut, he took 11 wickets for the match against South Australia. He led the first-class bowling average
Bowling average
Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned...
s for Victoria and capped the season by playing in St Kilda's premiership team. In the winter of 1932, Fleetwood-Smith joined a private tour of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, organised by the former Test spin bowler Arthur Mailey
Arthur Mailey
Arthur Alfred Mailey was an Australian cricketer who played in 21 Test matches between 1920 and 1926....
. Playing 51 matches, he totalled 249 wickets at an average of less than eight runs each as his unique style bewildered the local batsmen.
On the fringe of the Test team
This rapid rise made Fleetwood-Smith a prospect for the Test team in 1932–33 when England toured and played the famous BodylineBodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
series. However, in Ironmonger, Bill O'Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett, the Australian team possessed a strong spin bowling attack and Fleetwood-Smith needed to supplant one of the trio to gain selection. Although he took 50 first-class wickets for the season (at 21.90 average, including 9/36 in an innings against Tasmania), his bowling received rough treatment from Don Bradman in a match against New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
. In the tour match against England that followed, Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Walter Reginald "Wally" Hammond was an English Test cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning his career as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England...
was given specific instructions to attack the inexperienced Fleetwood-Smith and remove him from consideration for the Test matches, which he accomplished during an innings of 203. The England manager, Plum Warner
Plum Warner
Sir Pelham Francis Warner MBE , affectionately and better known as Plum Warner, or even "the Grand Old Man" of English cricket was a Test cricketer....
, later wrote that too much attention was given to this performance and he was sanguine about Fleetwood-Smith's potential as a Test bowler. Despite Grimmett's absence from the Australian team—he was dropped after the third Test—the Australian selectors opted not to gamble by choosing Fleetwood-Smith. Instead, they called on the all-rounders Ernie Bromley
Ernest Bromley (cricketer)
Ernest Harvey Bromley was an Australian cricketer who played in 2 Tests from 1933 to 1934....
and "Perka" Lee
Philip Lee (cricketer)
Philip Keith Lee was an Australian cricketer who played in 2 Tests from 1931 to 1933....
.
The following season, Fleetwood-Smith transferred from St Kilda to the Melbourne club
Melbourne Cricket Club
The Melbourne Cricket Club is a sporting club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia....
as they had found him employment. He collected 41 wickets for Victoria in seven matches, with a best match return of 12/158 against South Australia. This earned him a place in the Australian team for the 1934 tour of England
Australian cricket team in England in 1934
Australia won the 1934 Ashes series against England, winning two of the matches and losing one, with the other two tests drawn. The Australian tourists were captained by Bill Woodfull, while the home side were led by Bob Wyatt, with Cyril Walters deputising for Wyatt in the first Test.In the second...
. With Grimmett returned to favour, Fleetwood-Smith was unable to gain selection in the Test matches despite taking 106 first-class wickets (at a cost of 19.20 runs each) on the tour. Initially sceptical of his ability, Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
thought that his bowling was "erratic" during the early part of the tour, but that he improved dramatically during the second half of the season. Against Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
, Northants
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...
and HDG Leveson-Gower's XI, he took ten wickets for the match. In the latter game, he bowled an inspired spell to Maurice Leyland
Maurice Leyland
Maurice Leyland , christened 'Morris Leyland', was an English cricketer who played 41 Test matches between 1928 and 1938 and proved himself one of the best left-handers of his generation....
, the most prolific English batsman of the Test series. Leyland had great success in dealing with O'Reilly and Grimmett, but could not fathom Fleetwood-Smith's various deliveries.
During the 1934–35 season, Fleetwood-Smith set a new Sheffield Shield record of 60 wickets in six matches, which remained until Colin Miller
Colin Miller (cricketer)
Colin Reid Miller is a former Australian cricketer. Known for his ever-changing hair colour; he played with blue hair in a test match against the West Indies in 2001. His hair apparently made West Indies captain Courtney Walsh laugh.Miller began as a right-arm fast-medium bowler, but changed to...
claimed 67 wickets in 11 matches in 1997–98. He dominated Victoria's bowling—the next best was Ernie McCormick
Ernie McCormick
Ernest Leslie McCormick was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1935 to 1938....
with 22 wickets—as the team won the Sheffield Shield. In the match that effectively decided the title, Fleetwood-Smith took 15 wickets against a New South Wales team that included nine Test players. He guided the Melbourne club to the premiership in the district competition with seven wickets in the final against Collingwood
Camberwell Magpies Cricket Club
Camberwell Magpies Cricket Club is an Australian cricket team competing in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. The club formed in 1996 from an amalgamation of Collingwood Cricket Club, a foundation member of Victorian Premier Cricket in 1905, and Camberwell Cricket Club, a Victorian...
. Chosen to tour South Africa during the following summer, he made his belated Test debut in the opening match of the series at Durban. Taking the wicket of Ken Viljoen
Ken Viljoen
Kenneth George Viljoen was a South African cricketer who played in 27 Tests from 1930 to 1949, but he is more greatly renowned in cricketing circles as a manager of post-World War II Springbok teams....
in his first over, Fleetwood-Smith finished the match with five wickets. He played the next two Tests (for four wickets), but injured his hand while fielding his own bowling in a tour match against Border
Border cricket team
Border cricket team is the team representing the Border province in domestic first-class cricket in South Africa. The team began playing in March 1898....
. This forced him out of the remaining matches on the tour and caused him problems in the forthcoming months.
Ashes series 1936–37
Following his return to Australia, Fleetwood-Smith had surgery to a tendon in his finger and missed the early stages of the 1936–37 season. In his absence, Australia lost the opening two Tests of The Ashes series against England amid claims that the players were not responding well to their new captain, Don Bradman. Grimmett, now considered by the selectors to be too old for Test cricket, was not selected during the series. Therefore, Fleetwood-Smith recorded career-best figures at an opportune time. Playing against Queensland he captured 7/17 and 8/79, then secured his selection for the Test team with a five-wicket haul against New South Wales. In the third Test at MelbourneMelbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
, he contributed to Australia's victory with a valuable innings as a nightwatchman
Nightwatchman (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a nightwatchman is a lower-order batsman who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play...
and 5/124 in England's second innings as they were bowled out for 323, chasing a victory target of 689 runs.
Immediately after the match, Fleetwood-Smith, O'Reilly, Leo O'Brien and Stan McCabe
Stan McCabe
Stanley Joseph McCabe was an Australian cricketer who played 39 Test matches for Australia from 1930 to 1938. A short, stocky right-hander,...
were summoned to appear before four of Australia's leading cricket administrators, who read a prepared statement accusing the team of excessive drinking, inattention to fitness and disloyalty to the captain. The meeting ended in confusion when the four players were told that they were not being held responsible for the matters raised. This incident has been the subject of conjecture for many years. It is often interpreted as an illustration of a sectarian divide in Australian cricket during the period. Fleetwood-Smith attended Xavier (a Roman Catholic school) with O'Brien, while McCabe and O'Reilly were raised as Catholics in rural New South Wales; at least two of the administrators present were members of Masonic
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
lodges. Several of the senior players wanted McCabe as captain in place of Bradman, whose relationship with O'Reilly was strained. However, Fleetwood-Smith's presence is puzzling as he missed the first two Tests, to which the administrators specifically referred. Greg Growden, his biographer, records that Fleetwood-Smith had an unlikely friendship with Bradman (in that the two men were of opposite personalities), which later cooled after an unknown disagreement not associated with this incident.
Fleetwood-Smith took four wickets in England's first innings of the fourth Test at Adelaide. Set a target of 392 runs to win, England reached 3/148 in their second innings by stumps on the fifth day, with their leading batsman Wally Hammond 39 not out and the match evenly poised. At the beginning of the last day's play, Bradman gave Fleetwood-Smith the ball and told him, simply, that the fate of the match was in his hands. Before Hammond could add to his overnight score, Fleetwood-Smith delivered a perfectly-flighted off-break that drew Hammond forward as it curved away in the air. It then pitched and spun in the opposite direction to its trajectory, went between Hammond's bat and pad, and bowled him. The rest of the English batting fell for the addition of only 94 runs as Fleetwood-Smith advanced his figures to 6/110, giving him ten wickets for the match. Australia had levelled the series at two-all. Neville Cardus
Neville Cardus
Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus CBE was an English writer and critic, best known for his writing on music and cricket. For many years, he wrote for The Manchester Guardian. He was untrained in music, and his style of criticism was subjective, romantic and personal, in contrast with his critical...
wrote:
Australia would have lost at Adelaide but for Fleetwood-Smith. Chuck took four years to gain revenge. He was suddenly visited by genius. Moreover he sucked the sweet blood of vengeance against Hammond. A lovely ball lured Hammond forward, broke at the critical length, evaded the bat and bowled England's pivot and main hope ... This achievement set a crown on the most skilful artistic spin bowler of the day.
O'Reilly described it as the best delivery he ever witnessed in a major cricket match. Bradman wrote, "If ever the result of a Test match can be said to have been decided by a single ball, this was the occasion." After the match, thousands of spectators gathered in front of the pavilion and chanted his name until he came out to greet them. Later, he was given a civic reception in his home town of Stawell to celebrate his achievement.
Australia amassed 604 in the first innings of the deciding Test at Melbourne, then bowled England out twice to win the match by an innings and 200 runs, thus retaining the Ashes. Fleetwood-Smith claimed four wickets to leave him second to Bill O'Reilly.
Second tour of England and after
Fleetwood-Smith's second tour of England in 1938 was less successful than his first. His 88 first-class wickets included match analyses of 8/70 against SomersetSomerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
and 8/74 against Notts
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
. Wisden noted that he succeeded mainly against batsmen unfamiliar with his method and offered this ambivalent assessment: "He could not be written down as a failure but he certainly fell below expectations ..." However, he played in every Test of the series for the only time in his career. His seven wickets in the fourth Test at Leeds
Headingley Stadium
Headingley Stadium is a sporting complex in the Leeds suburb of Headingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, rugby league team Leeds Rhinos and rugby union team Leeds Carnegie ....
gave crucial support to O'Reilly, whose 10/122 was the major factor in the victory that enabled Australia to retain The Ashes.
In the final match of the series at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, England went in first on a pitch ideal for batting and made a record total of 7/903, with their opening batsman Len Hutton
Len Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...
making 364 to break Bradman's Ashes record score. England won by the overwhelming margin of an innings and 579 runs. Fleetwood-Smith conceded a world record of 298 runs in his 87 overs, for the wicket of Wally Hammond. By contrast, O'Reilly's 85 overs cost him 178 runs. This had a dramatic impact on his average. Before the match it was 31.02; after, it was 37.38.
For Victoria, Fleetwood-Smith captured 246 wickets at 24.56 runs per wicket in 40 Sheffield Shield matches, and in 51 matches for Victoria from 1931–32 to 1939–40, Fleetwood-Smith captured 295 wickets at 24.39. He captured five wickets in an innings 31 times, 10 times going on to capture ten wickets in a match, both records for Victoria.
Style
Of above average height, Fleetwood-Smith was broad-shouldered and solidly built. He possessed strong wrists and fingers, developed by squeezing a squash ball, which enabled him to spin the ball hard—teammates and opponents spoke of the "buzzing" or "fizzing" noise that the ball made on its way toward the batsman after leaving his hand. Fleetwood-Smith's approach to bowling was uncomplicated. Following a very brief five-pace run up to the wicket, he brought his arm over quickly to deliver at a pace considered fast for a spin bowler. His three variations were the off-break (spinning into the right-hand batsman), the wrong 'unGoogly
In cricket, a googly is a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is occasionally referred to as a Bosie , an eponym in honour of its inventor Bernard Bosanquet.- Explanation :...
(spinning away) and the top spinner
Topspinner
A top-spinner is a type of delivery bowled by a cricketer bowling either wrist spin or finger spin. In either case, the bowler imparts the ball with top spin by twisting it with his or her fingers prior to delivery...
, which Hammond believed to be his best ball. He did not bother with varying his pace or flight: the only concession he made to tactical considerations was a signal to the wicket-keeper, to let him know which of the three variations he was about to deliver. Therefore, he rarely engaged in an extended strategic battle with a batsman in the manner of Grimmett or O'Reilly. The danger to the batsman lay in his unpredictability; he bowled all of his variations with no discernible change to his bowling action and needed no help from the pitch to extract turn. Bradman summarised:
Comparisons
During the 1930s, Australia's bowling attack was dominated by spinners, specifically Grimmett and O'Reilly. Their stature in Australian cricket history saw them inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of FameAustralian Cricket Hall of Fame
The Australian Cricket Hall of Fame is a part of the Australian Gallery of Sport and Olympic Museum in the National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. This Hall of Fame commemorates the greatest Australian cricketers of all time....
in 1996 as one of the ten inaugural members, and they were the only two spinners in the first ten. Fleetwood-Smith's 42 Test wickets placed him fifth on the list of Australian wicket-takers for the period despite playing in only ten of Australia's 39 Test matches. The only fast bowlers of note on this list are Tim Wall
Tim Wall
Thomas Welbourn 'Tim' Wall was an Australian Test cricketer who played eighteen Tests between 1929 and 1934. Wall died in 1981 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Wall's 10-36 in February 1933 remains the best first-class figures recorded in Australia...
(48 wickets in 17 matches) and Ernie McCormick
Ernie McCormick
Ernest Leslie McCormick was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1935 to 1938....
(36 wickets in 12 matches). Apart from the occasions when rain intervened to create a sticky wicket
Sticky wicket
Sticky wicket is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance; it originates from difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket.-Origins:...
, the period was characterised by pitches prepared to favour batting. This so-called "doping" of pitches created controversy at the time and even Bradman argued for greater consideration for the bowlers. Despite his flaws in other areas of the game, Fleetwood-Smith's ability to take wickets quickly was invaluable. In first-class cricket, his strike rate of 44.16 balls per wicket is superior to those of Grimmett and O'Reilly. However, his economy rate (i.e. the number of runs conceded per over) is almost 50% higher than that of O'Reilly, reflecting his relative inaccuracy.
| Matches | Wickets | Average Bowling average Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowlers divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. It is similar to earned... |
5w/inns | 10w/m | Str/Rate Strike rate Strike rate refers to two different statistics in the sport of cricket. Batting strike rate is a measure of how frequently a batsman achieves the primary goal of batting, namely scoring runs. Bowling strike rate is a measure of how frequently a bowler achieves the primary goal of bowling, namely... |
Eco/Rate | |
| Grimmett | 248 | 1424 | 22.28 | 127 | 33 | 51.57 | 2.59 |
| O'Reilly | 135 | 774 | 16.60 | 63 | 17 | 48.16 | 2.06 |
| Fleetwood-Smith | 112 | 597 | 22.64 | 57 | 18 | 44.16 | 3.07 |
Eccentricities and personality
Fleetwood-Smith was famed for his eccentric nature on the field. He would sing, whistle, practice his golf swing, imitate birds such as magpies and kookaburras, pretend to catch imaginary butterflies, and shout encouragement for his favourite football team, Port MelbournePort Melbourne Football Club
The Port Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Borough, is an Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne and is currently playing in the Victorian Football League ....
. While playing in England, he liked to chant Lord Hawke's
Martin Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke
Martin Bladen Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke of Towton , generally known as Lord Hawke, was an English amateur cricketer who played major roles in the sport's administration....
name and chat to the spectators with his back to the play. His inattention to batting and fielding exasperated his teammates; he was quoted as saying, "if you can't be the best batsman in the world, you might as well be the worst."
In addition to the affectation of his hyphenated surname, Fleetwood-Smith usually listed his year of birth as 1910 (thus reducing his age by two years) and propagated a story among journalists that he became a left-arm bowler when he broke his right arm during his youth.
Personal life
On 28 February 1935, Fleetwood-Smith married Mary "Mollie" Elliott at St Mary's Catholic Church in East St KildaSt Kilda East, Victoria
St Kilda East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south-east of Melbourne's central business district. It is located within the Local Government Areas of the City of Glen Eira and the City of Port Phillip. At the 2006 Census, it had a population of 12,188.St Kilda East is one...
. The wedding was a society event widely covered by the newspapers. Her family was well known in Melbourne for owning a prosperous soft-drink business; her father was an alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
of the city. Fleetwood-Smith had a reputation as a ladies' man who traded on his resemblance to the actor Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, and his infidelities after his marriage were not discreet. He joined the Elliotts' business as a sales representative, which brought him into daily contact with the pub trade and increased his alcohol consumption.
After the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Fleetwood-Smith enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force
Second Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...
and was posted to the Army's Physical and Recreational Training School at Frankston
Frankston, Victoria
Frankston is a suburb within the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area in Victoria, Australia. It is located 40 km southeast of the state capital Melbourne at the southernmost edge of Greater Melbourne, near the beginnings of the Mornington Peninsula...
where he served alongside Don Bradman as a Warrant Officer
Warrant Officer
A warrant officer is an officer in a military organization who is designated an officer by a warrant, as distinguished from a commissioned officer who is designated an officer by a commission, or from non-commissioned officer who is designated an officer by virtue of seniority.The rank was first...
. He was involved in a collision with a nightcart when driving a borrowed army vehicle and the matter ended in court where he was ordered to pay costs. After less than a year's service, he was given a medical discharge in February 1941.
Fleetwood-Smith played the first post-war cricket season of 1945–46 for the Melbourne club and then retired with a tally of 252 wickets at 17.52 average in 74 district cricket matches, including four premiership teams. By this time, his marriage had broken down and his wife petitioned for divorce in June 1946, which was granted the following year. This alienated him from his family in Stawell as his ex-wife remained close to the Fleetwood-Smiths. He had lost his job with the Elliotts' company during the war. Fleetwood-Smith married Beatrix Collins (the sister of a teammate at Melbourne) at a registry office on 9 July 1948. He worked intermittently at menial jobs and his drinking increased; his second marriage also failed.
His arrest for vagrancy and theft in March 1969 was widely covered by the media. Appalled by his circumstance, a number of influential friends from his cricketing days, such as the former Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies
Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
, aided him by organising him legal assistance. The hearing was later adjourned, and he reconciled with his wife Bea after committing to remain sober. They lived together again for the last years of his life. However, the years of homelessness left him in poor health, and he died from cancer at St Vincent's Hospital
St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne
St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne is the major hospital in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia.It is operated by the St Vincent's Health service, previously known as the Sisters of Charity Health Service, Melbourne...
in Fitzroy
Fitzroy, Victoria
Fitzroy is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra. Its borders are Alexandra Parade , Victoria Parade , Smith Street and Nicholson Street. Fitzroy is Melbourne's...
a fortnight before his 63rd birthday.