How Fletcher the Etcher Saved the Day
After 30 years of engraving the winners’ names on trophies at the Australian Open, it looked like “Fletcher the Etcher” had finally come unstuck. Instead, adversity drove the master engraver to what he calls his “happiest” pieces of work. On Saturday at 11pm, Perry Fletcher was instructed to engrave Victoria Azarenka’s name on her “take-home” trophy, a replica of the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup, which remains in Australia. Alongside the two-time champ’s name, he was told by organisers to add “(BEL)”, denoting her homeland of Belarus.
Under a blaze of television cameras the engraver executed his task as flawlessly as ever. However, when the trophy was brought to him, he immediately remembered that he had engraved “(BLR)” alongside singles winner Azarenka’s name last year. It flashed through his mind that the “(BEL)” on the 2013 replica was in fact an abbreviation of Belgium, not Belarus. Mr Fletcher admits to only one mistake in 50 years. He said he once engraved Roger Federer, rather than Andy Roddick, as the winner of the Kooyong Classic.
Another engraver had also made a blue and the trophy was wiped clean. Mr Fletcher then re-engraved all the names. But a mistake on a grand slam trophy quickly became a global story. “Perhaps the engraver is still hung up on Australia’s favourite adopted daughter, (Belgian-born) Kim Clijsters, “the Tennisplanet website suggested. “A blonde champion?… A small country that starts with the letter ‘B’? Anyone could make that mistake. Just kidding. There’s no excusing this one. Mr Fletcher didn’t hear of the controversy until he turned on his mobile phone at home on the Mornington Peninsula the next morning.
There was a plaintive message from the organisers, desperate for a solution to the embarrassing gaffe Fixing the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup was a breeze. On Sunday night, as Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray battled it out for the men’s singles title, Mr Fletcher was turning “(BEL)” into “(BELARUS)”. Problem solved. To fix the trophy gave him the greatest joy, he says, even if there were no cameras to record the save. The relief and joy of the organisers made him feel like he had won a grand slam title too, he said. And having saved his reputation, don’t think he didn’t take a little extra care with Djokovic’s name when he won the men’s title.