PHIL Hughes will forever be 63 not out.
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And, Singleton cricketers – both junior and senior, as well as the wider community, have paid tribute to the talented left-hander.
In moving scenes throughout town, residents have placed a single cricket bat outside homes and work places or posted photos on Facebook.
The senior players donned black arm bands and observed 63 seconds of silence – to mark the score Hughes reached in Tuesday’s Sheffield Shield match before he faced the delivery which ended his life.
Howe Park also signified the figure 408, the fallen hero’s Test number.
“Everyone in the Singleton District Cricket Association offers their condolences to Phil Hughes’ family and friends,” Helene Goadsby told The Argus.
“Our thoughts are also with Sean Abbott.”
The gestures come on the back of a worldwide outpouring of grief.
Candlelight vigils took place in Pakistan, wreaths were left at cricket’s hallowed ground of Lords, flags flew at half-mast and New Zealand batsman Brendon McCullum bludgeoned a century with the initials PH on his shirt.
NSW Premier Mike Baird has announced a State Memorial Service at the Sydney Cricket Ground to pay tribute to the boy from Macksville, while a Western Sydney father’s simple Twitter tribute of posting a picture of a cricket bat at his door was copied around the world in a massive final salute.