Tibby Cotter

Australian cricketer

Tibby Cotter

Cotter in about 1905

Personal information

Born

3 December 1883
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Died

31 October 1917 (aged 33)
Beersheba, Ottoman Palestine

Height

173 cm (5 ft 8 in)

Batting

Right-handed

Bowling

Right-arm fast

International information

National side

Australia

Test debut (cap 85)

26 February 1904 v England

Last Test

9 February 1912 v England

Career statistics

Competition	Test	First-class
Matches	21	113
Runs scored	457	2,484
Batting average	13.05	16.89
100s/50s	0/0	0/4
Top score	45	82
Balls bowled	4,633	19,565
Wickets	89	442
Bowling average	28.64	24.27
5 wickets in innings	7	31
10 wickets in match	0	4
Best bowling	7/148	7/15
Catches/stumpings	8/–	61/–

Source: CricInfo, 14 October 2022

Military career

Allegiance

Australia

Service/branch

Australian Army

Years of service

1915-17

Rank

Trooper

Unit

12th Light Horse Regiment, Australian Expeditionary Force

Battles/wars

First World War

Gallipoli campaign
Sinai and Palestine campaign
- Second Battle of Gaza
- Battle of Beersheba †

Albert "Tibby" Cotter (3 December 1883 – 31 October 1917) was an Australian cricketer who played in 21 Test matches between 1904 and 1912. He served in World War I with the First Australian Imperial Force and was killed in action in the mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade at Beersheba in Ottoman Palestine.

Family

The sixth and youngest son of John Henry Cotter, (1839–1922)^[1] and Margaret Hay Cotter (1850–1936), née Pattison,^[2] Albert Cotter was born on 3 December 1883 in Sydney. He died in action, at Beersheba on 31 October 1917. One of his brothers, John, had been killed in action, at Broodseinde, Belgium, three weeks earlier, on 4 October 1917. Two other brothers, Arthur Dale (1877–1921), and Edwin (1880–1929) died in railway accidents.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

Cricketer

Fast bowler

Although only 5'8" (173 cm) tall—the same height as Harold Larwood—he was arguably the best fast bowler through the first decade of the 20th century,^[8]^[9] he had a reputation for breaking stumps. Early moving film of his action clearly shows a slinging action that was to cause controversy in England.

"Terror" Cotter

While regarded as the fastest of his era in Australia (his pace saw him nicknamed "'Terror' Cotter" by English fans) he did not always have the control to back it up, hitting W.G.Grace on the body with a full toss on his first tour of England.

Test Cricket

He took eight or more wickets in a match four times from his 21 Tests, and his strike rate of 52.0 precisely matches that of Dennis Lillee.^[10]

1912 dispute

In February 1912, Cotter was one of the "Rebellious Six"—the other five were Warwick Armstrong, Hanson Carter, Clem Hill, Vernon Ransford, and Victor Trumper—each of whom, separately, declared themselves unavailable for selection in the Australian team to play against both England and South Africa in the Tri-Nation Cricket Tournament in England, in May 1912.^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]

Following the events of 1912, he never played for Australia again.

Military service

Cotter joined the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in April 1915, aged 31. The enlistment of a former sporting champion was seen as powerful publicity for the AIF recruiting campaign.

Despite having no great riding ability, he was accepted into the 1st Australian Light Horse Regiment; he took a late part in the Gallipoli campaign. Later he transferred to the 12th Light Horse and was commended for his "fine work under heavy fire" during the Second Battle of Gaza. The official history remarked: "he behaved in action as a man without fear". He declined promotion.

While serving in the AIF, he participated in a unique Australia v. England "Test Match" played in 1917 between two teams made up from the Australian and British troops stationed in Palestine.^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18]

Death

On 31 October 1917 the 4th Light Horse Brigade, of which the 12th Regiment was part, captured Beersheba by a brilliant cavalry-style charge. Although Cotter was there as a stretcher-bearer, he actually took part in the charge itself, and "was shot from the saddle during a mounted charge on a Turkish position":^[19]

"Cotter was killed in a mounted charge on Beersheba at dusk on the 31/10/17. Early next morning, together with Trooper O'Rourke of our troop, I was detailed to collect saddlery and personal effects. We were surprised to find Cotter amongst our casualties, knowing he had been detailed for that day as a stretcher bearer. It seems he had changed places with another Light Horseman because he wanted to be in the mounted charge." — "Ex-Trooper", The Crookwell Gazette, 1 March 1933.^[20]

At the end of the charge, as troops dismounted to engage the enemy, a Turk shot Cotter dead at close range.^[21]^[22]

Legacy

The family home, "Monteith", 266 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, into which the family moved in 1891,^[23] is classified by the National Trust (see NSW State Heritage Register); and the adjoining "Cotter Lane", was so named in 1911.

On 25 January 1919, a memorial plaque dedicated to Cotter was unveiled in the members' pavilion of the Sydney Cricket ground during a break in play in the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria^[24]^[25] and in February 2015, the Albert Cotter Bridge opened across Anzac Parade, Sydney opposite the Sydney Cricket Ground. In 2017, in commemoration of the centenary of Cotter's death, the fourth round of Cricket NSW's Premier Cricket was designated the "Tibby Cotter Round".^[26]

Footnotes

^ Deaths: Cotter, The Sydney Morning Herald (18 December 1922) p. 8.
^ Mrs. M. H. Cotter, The Sydney Morning Herald (2 October 1936) p. 18.
^ Railway Fatality, The (Lismore) Northern Star (1 June 1921) p. 5
^ Deaths: Cotter, The Sydney Morning Herald (1 June 1921) p. 10
^ Fall From Train: Man Killed, The Sydney Morning Herald (2 December 1929), p. 12
^ Deaths; Cotter, The Sydney Morning Herald (3 December 1929), p. 12
^ Mr. Edwin Cotter, The Sydney Morning Herald (7 December 1929), p. 21.
^ Cricket Gossip, The (Melbourne) Leader (1 December 1917), p. 21.
^ Cricket: A. Cotter Killed in Action: Sydney Fast Bowler's Career, The Referee (21 November 1917), p. 12.
^ Records: Test Matches: Bowling Records: Best Career Strike Rate, espncricinfo.com.
^ Cricket, The Barrier Miner (27 February 1912), p. 2.
^ Board of Control and Players, The Weekly Times (24 February 1912), p. 22
^ "Rebellious Six": Last Hope Gone, The Tamworth Daily Observer (27 February 1912), p. 2.
^ The Cricketers' Dispute—A Summing Up, The Sydney Daily Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (28 February 1912) p. 26, p. 27.
^ All out for Four: War-Time Test Match, The Crookwell Gazette (22 February 1933) p. 1.
^ Letter to the Editor from "Cricket Follower", The Crookwell Gazette (1 March 1933), p. 4.
^ Tibby Cotter, The Crookwell Gazette (1 March 1933), p. 4: A letter to the Editor from "Ex-Trooper" in response to "Cricket Follower's" letter a week earlier.
^ An Interesting Snapshot, Sydney Mail (9 February 1921) p. 14.
^ Single, C.V. (July/August 1918) "Albert Cotter—An Appreciation", The Morvada Magazine. p. 42.
^ Australian War Memorial Collection: P02279.003: "The dead bodies of Australian soldiers killed in the charge on Beersheba lie in a row on the ground" — Cotter's body is marked with an "X" in the photograph.
^ Bonnell, M. (31 October 2017) "Albert 'Tibby' Cotter: The Australian Test star who died on the battlefield", The Sydney Morning Herald.
^ Overington, C. (28 October 2017) "Equal to the Test", The Weekend Australian.
^ It remained in the Cotter family until it was sold in 1952, following the death of Cotter's eldest brother, William Henry (1874–1850).
^ Albert Cotter Memorial, The Sydney Morning Herald (21 January 1919), p. 8
^ V. Trumper and Albert Cotter, The Referee (29 January 1919), p. 9.
^ Centenary Commemoration with Tibby Cotter Round, Cricket NSW (24 October 2017).

References

Bonnell, M. & Sproul, A., Tibby Cotter: Fast Bowler, Larrikin, Anzac, Walla Walla Press, (Sydney), 2012.
Renshaw, A., "Tpr Albert Cotter", pp,318–319 in Renshaw, A. (ed), Wisden on the Great War: The Lives of Cricket's Fallen 1914–1918, John Wisden and Co, (London), 2014.
Walsh, G.P., "Cotter, Albert (Tibby) (1883–1917)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1981.