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At the precise moment when Monty Noble was being born in Sydney’s Haymarket, #onthisday 1873, a military band passed by playing loud music as if to herald his arrival in the world. Mother Maria immediately declared that her eighth and last child would be famous.
#cricket
At the precise moment when Monty Noble was being born in Sydney’s Haymarket, #onthisday 1873, a military band passed by playing loud music as if to herald his arrival in the world. Mother Maria immediately declared that her eighth and last child would be famous.
#cricket
He was called ‘Mary Anne’ by the Sydney crowd because of his initials. His teammates called him ‘Boots’ because of the massive footwear in which he took the field.
History, however, cannot afford a flippant nickname for Montague Alfred Noble the cricketer.
History, however, cannot afford a flippant nickname for Montague Alfred Noble the cricketer.
A top-order batsman of pedigree, Noble could swing the ball prodigiously. With a grip borrowed from visiting American baseball players, he pinched the seam between his thumb & forefinger. The result was a medium-paced out-swinger carrying the threat of cutting back off the seam.
In 42 Tests, he scored 1,997 runs at 30.25 mostly from the top of the order, often as opening batsman … in those days on either side of the turn of the last century when wickets were dicey and uncertain. He also scalped 121 wickets at 25 apiece.
As a batsman he was versatile, his approach based on situational demand, with the ability to vary his methods. He could defend for hours and could also use his height and reach to drive, pull and cut.
One of the masters of spin-swerve, Noble was prone to use break-backs to get his wickets on helpful pitches.
He was also brilliant at point and had a superb throwing arm. Once when the team was passing through Suez Canal, he beaned an Arab on the shore with a perfectly thrown apple after the man had made objectionable gestures.
As a child, Noble showed less inclination for cricket and more towards the church. He rang the bell at St Mark’s in Darling Point & excelled at singing solos in the choir. Later, when in England, he often visited churches.
His chosen profession in the end was that of a dentist.
His chosen profession in the end was that of a dentist.
During the final phase of his career, Noble became one of the most innovative and astute captains. A superb strategist, he was a model skipper whose personal qualities were for long considered to be the template for the ideal Australian captain.
Apart from the tactic of keeping his bowlers fresh with short spells, he also introduced the trick of keeping the cover open to lure the batsmen into snicking drives to the slip and gully.
In his seminal The Game’s the Thing Noble wrote, “The great leader is the embodiment of all the hopes, virtue, courage and ability possessed by the ten men under his command. If he is not, he is but the shadow and lacks the substance of captaincy. He will not last.”
Noble’s innovations went beyond the field of play. He used to put sugar cubes in his whiskey to prevent hangover. Some of his playing shirts had air holes in the arms.
He also contributed to cricket as a dentist.
One of his patients was Bill Ferguson who was soon engaged as baggage man and scorer. Fergie served Australia for almost half a century in that capacity and never lost a bag.
One of his patients was Bill Ferguson who was soon engaged as baggage man and scorer. Fergie served Australia for almost half a century in that capacity and never lost a bag.
Ferguson’s sister was another of his patients, and later became his wife and the mother of his four children.
During the Second World War, Noble, at the age of 67, served as a volunteer dentist for the Australian Army in Liverpool, on Sydney’s outskirts. It was in this capacity that he suffered a heart attack while taking part in a social game of cricket and died a few days later.
In The Water Diviner, Russell Crowe used a cricket bat specifically of the same brand as used by Noble 10 years before the Gallipoli debacle.
