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Cometh the hour, cometh the man

Posted by Ray Hattingh on February 14, 2004

This phrase was uttered by the English bowler, Cliff Gladwin on the 20th December 1948 in Durban, South Africa, when, with 2 wickets standing and 12 runs required off the last three reamining overs, he came into bat. He scored the winning run from a leg-bye with the last ball of the match after the ball had struck him on the thigh.
Afterwards, in the dressing room, he proudly showed all comers the bruise from which cricket's most fanous leg-bye was scored. "I told you, 'cometh the hour, cometh the man'," he chaffed Dudley Nourse the South African captain, afterwards.
This was reported in the Durban papers and can also be found on page 104 of Arthur Goldman's book, Try and Stump me! published in 1956 by Central News Agebcy Limited, South Africa.
As to whether he created the phrase or had heard it before - that is anyone's guess.

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