Tibby Cotter?
It’s not quite that his name no longer resonates on the collective Australian sporting psyche, but even at best it is his name only that registers, with little understanding of what he actually did. In this leadup to Anzac Day, allow me.
As one who has just finished writing, if not yet publishing a book on the Australian Light Horse and the “Last Charge at Beersheba” on 31 October 1917, I’ve spent a long time trying to reassemble the Sydneysider that English cricket fans called “Terror Cotter” and bring some of his story to life.
For yes, Cotter was the Dennis Lillee of his day. In a 1908 profile written in the Sydney Mail, it was written: “Tibby Cotter is the match-winner, stump-breaker, and sensation-provider of Australia. He started this season by getting six wickets for 12, the last five for three, and smashed a stump.”
Whether he quite invented the “bouncer,” is less certain, but there was no doubt of his danger or speed and when he once broke no less than Victor Trumper’s middle stump in two, Trumper graciously held both pieces up to the crowd on the SCG “Hill” so they could see for themselves Cotter’s feat.
Tibby Cotter demonstrates his bowling action.
Joining the Australian Light Horse for the Great War, Cotter landed at Gallipoli and was beloved by the Diggers for regaling them with cricket stories, and for being able to throw grenades 30 yards further than anyone there, and with great accuracy.
After the evacuation, Cotter excelled as a stretcher-bearer and was most particularly prominent in the Second Battle of Gaza.
“Cotter, the international fast bowler,” the official historian Henry Gullett would chronicle, “was prominent all day among the stretcher-bearers . . . He behaved in action as a man without fear.”
Between battles, there would sometimes be a sufficient respite for recreation and on one notable occasion, a proposal was made for a “Test Match” between the best cricket players of England’s Imperial Yeomanry and the Australian Light Horse. Sure. And yet while the English were very loud about boasting in their ranks none other than JWHT Douglas, who had before the war been the captain of the England cricket team that won the 1911-1912 Ashes, the Australians kept quiet about Cotter.
“The wicket,” the account of a padre there on the day will go, “was formed of sandy soil and tibbin – grainless chaff – and was as well watered as any Adelaide wicket, and rolled with a full water drum.”
The Australian team enters the field dressed in their khaki breeches with their regulation sky-blue shirts, singlets and canvas shoes, while those born and raised beneath the Southern Cross gasped to see the English side emerge in perfect whites, with creases on the bloody seams! In the bloody desert? What are they going to produce next, ice cream? The explanation is that by pure happenstance all the best players of the selected England side also prove to be among the echelon of the most senior officers, meaning they all have orderlies to help procure the said clothing, and put creases in them!
And so now lift your heads and let us play.
After winning the toss, Australia bat first.
Is it their fault that they are bowled out for just 57 runs?
It is not. They have given it their all.
The charge of the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade at Beersheba. This photograph was once thought to be of the charge itself, but today is believed to be a reconstruction of the event filmed the next day.
But, just 57 runs! Why, with JWHT Douglas in our ranks, we should be able to knock that out in a few overs!
Yes, you’re probably right, but you might as well pad up anyway, yes?
And in fact, in short order, the man himself strides out to the crease. He looks around in the manner of one who has seen a few pitches in his time, single-handedly beaten many teams from all over the world and will be happy to do the honours again today. And yes, of course, the Diggers from the cheap seats are crying out – in the well-worn Australian crowds play on his initials – “Johnny Won’t Hit Today!” but Johnny himself is clearly convinced he certainly will hit today.
Well, we’ll see about that. Douglas is accompanied to the crease by George Kekewich, an Old Etonian like they don’t make them anymore and now noted batsman for the famed City of London Yeomanry unit, known as “The Rough Riders”.
Now who is this rather athletic figure standing at the northern end of the field on this stinking hot day, waiting for the Australian captain to throw him the ball to begin the opening over? Whoever he is, he did not bat. But now, as JWHT Douglas takes strike for the opening ball of the innings – gazing confidently around the field settings to decide where he will hit his first boundary – the bowler runs in with a distinctive, long, loping run.
His first ball makes a ssssst hissing sound as it strikes the pitch, and careers past the Englishman’s bat in a tenth of a flash!
JWHT Douglas straightens up. There is only one man he has faced in his career able to put a ball down with that kind of speed. And he looks closer at the fast bowler who has just delivered it. It is one and the same. Tibby Cotter!
The Australians in the crowd roar at the joke and the English jokingly boo. Now this will be something.
And for the next ball, at least, Douglas knows what he is dealing with, and this time takes strike with intent and fierce concentration. Again Cotter unleashes. Again there is a ssssst, and a small puff of dust where the searing ball strikes the pitch. This time there is the crack of ball on wood.
The Albert ‘Tibby’ Cotter Bridge stands in Moore Park near the SCG in Sydney.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Alas for Johnny Didn’t Hit Today, it is his middle stump!
Gone for a duck.
Worse still for the Yeomanry, the rest of the English team do little better, with Tibby steaming in from the Pyramid end of the ground, and the entire England line-up is gone for . . . 4! Bloody Moses Almighty! Just four runs, one of them a bye! Tibby – who has finished with the figures of 9/2 – is chaired from the field by the cheering Australians, and even the England players roar their regard.
The charge at Beersheba would come several months later. Late in the day with the battle in the balance, 800 Australian Light Horsemen would charge straight at the Turkish guns – neck or nothing.
Cotter swapped his stretcher for a horse for the occasion and charged with the best of them. The result was an astonishing victory, as the Australians simply overwhelmed the brave Turks still manning their guns. But it came at a cost and one of those who paid the price was Cotter, whom they found the next day.
“We were surprised to find Cotter amongst our casualties,” one trooper will recount, “knowing he had been detailed for that day as a stretcher bearer.”
As will subsequently be sworn by one who was there, those fellows who “picked up the lifeless body of Australia’s great express swear that he lay as though bowling – with his right arm stretched out in the familiar action so well known to cricketers and the [SCG] Hill alike.”
Vale, Tibby.
Lest we Forget.
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
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