Max Bonnell and Andrew Sproul

Winner of the Australian Cricket Society Literary Award for 2011–12

Tibby Cotter was a pioneer fast bowler being the first to bowl bouncers frequently in an intimidatory fashion and to employ a packed slips field. He was an unlikely innovator in that he was a carefree cricketer who disliked practice. He was a dashing tail-order batsman who entertained crowds with his slogging.

Cotter was an uncomplicated man, an undisciplined larrikin, who had his share of brushes with officialdom and the law.

He served at Gallipoli and Beersheba as a stretcher-bearer and was the only Australian Test cricketer killed in the First World War. Although he was a simple man, there were many contradictions about Cotter including the mystery of his death.

Book chapters

Introduction
Beginnings
Glebe cricketer
First-class and Test cricketer
1905 tour
Technique of a fast bowler
Batsman
Rugby player
Cricket politics
1909 tour
The cricketer off the field
South Africans in Australia
Enlistment
Mysterious death at Beersheba
After the war

“Tibby Cotter’s Australian story needs telling. Max Bonnell and Andrew Sproul do it justice with impeccable research brought to life in a lively and engaging style. ‘A gem of a book’.”
Warwick Franks, former editor, Australian Wisden

Andrew Sproul

Tibby Cotter: Fast Bowler, Larrikin, ANZAC