Chuck Fleetwood Smith

Leslie OBrien Chuck FleetwoodSmith 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, FleetwoodSmith was regarded as a rare talent, but his cricket suffered from a lack of selfdiscipline that also characterised his personal life. In addition, his career coincided with those of Bill OReilly 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 193637 Ashes series has been compared to Shane Warnes ball of the century. He has the unwanted record of conceding the most runs by a bowler in a Test match innings.

The third child of Fleetwood Smith and his wife Frances , FleetwoodSmith was born at Stawell 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 Smiths association with the organising committee of the Stawell Gift. During his infancy, FleetwoodSmith 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 Xaviers powerful First XI, which included the future Test player Leo OBrien and Karl Schneider, who played firstclass 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 FleetwoodSmith left the school soon after. It is believed that he was expelled, although the school records are incomplete and do not mention this.

Source: Wikipedia