Brian Taber

Gordon District Cricket Club | September 02, 2025

Brian Taber arrived at the club for the 1956-57 season. At the age of 16 years and 160 days he was selected in First Grade. Daunting you might say but at that time in his cricket development he had, according to Sid Carroll, “what it takes to be a quality keeper”. Bert Oldfield, an interested observer, said to Brian’s father Charles, “He moves well, and I can organise some gloves for him from my store.” He did organise the gloves following a visit with Brian and his father, at a price. Bert was the consummate businessman.

The club did not have a good summer, but Taber certainly made his mark. The club’s Annual Report said:

There was also … the success of Brian Taber our wicket keeper. This young lad has remarkable skill; he did some brilliant things and with maturity must issue a challenge for higher honours. This is an exceptional performance for one so young in his first season in the senior grade.

In that first season Taber secured 30 victims, 22 catches and eight stumpings. Growing up in Fairy Meadow, north of Wollongong, Brian had heard cricket stories from his father Charles, a schoolteacher, who had possibly hoped that he would be a cricketer, naming him ‘Hedley’ after the English bowler Hedley Verity. Bowling was not to be his chosen calling however, but wicketkeeping. It was in these formative days that he learned about Bradman, O’Reilly, WG Grace, Keith Miller and Trumper amongst many players.

In 2015 at the dinner held on the eve of the Victor Trumper seminar at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Taber relayed a story that connected him with Victor Trumper.

We were playing Mosman at Chatswood Oval and had changed in the rooms downstairs in the Trumper Pavilion. It was my sixth game for the club and on this day, I met for the first time Charlie Macartney, introduced to me and my brother Ross by Sid Carroll. I knew who Macartney was and his place in the game. In the discussions the name of Trumper came up. I don’t recall the full conversation now but recall distinctly that Macartney said that Vic always enjoyed playing at Chatswood Oval. It was in some ways like home, as he lived up the street. I asked where and was told Help Street, Chatswood. Macartney then explained where the house was located.

Later that day when we were batting, I suggested to Ross that we should visit the Trumper house, which we did. There was a problem. When we arrived back at Chatswood there had been a bit of a collapse in the Gordon batting and some of the Gordon team were looking for us to pad up. I learnt a lesson that day but also saw where the man whose name adorns the Trumper Pavilion lived. One day in the mid-1970s I was driving to Chatswood Oval and driving down Help Steet saw that the house was no longer there. It was now a construction site. As the years moved on I Iearned much about the history of the game and could always put Victor Trumper firmly into that history. He was part of Gordon just as I was.

Those early years at Gordon were important for Taber. Former Australian wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield was often around the club schooling Taber in the ‘art of keeping’; ever dapper, “Bert would don the whites, wear a handkerchief around the neck and come down to instruct young players at the club”, recalls James Cattlin. Cattlin continues, “I can still see Bert taking Brian through drills, showing him how it should be done. Brian listened to Bert respectfully.”

Oldfield had often taken Taber aside to demonstrate skills only known to the wicketkeeping fraternity, suggesting that he play with his sleeves buttoned at the wrists and ensure that he was always balanced – if you looked the part then you would feel comfortable in playing cricket. It was advice that Taber took seriously. And he learnt how to concentrate.

As the years moved on Taber was being recognised by the selectors. Often Dick Guy was selected alongside him. There were times in the NSW Colts XI, NSW Second XI games and Metropolitan fixtures. Dick Guy and Brian Taber had decided that if they were to improve their game they needed to practice, so they did. Twice a week after work, over and above Gordon or NSW squad practice, the leg spinner and wicketkeeper would walk past the Trumper Pavilion across Chatswood Oval to the practice nets to work on their chosen discipline. Guy recalls: “We would practice for one and a half to two hours, Tabsy keeping and myself bowling leg spin. We worked hard. I needed to bowl to improve and Tabsy wanted to be able to read bowlers and leg spinning was a good place to start. I can honestly say that Tabsy was a quality keeper. His reading of the game from behind the stumps was superb.”

It’s Not About Me – The Brian Taber Story recounts the career and life of Hedley Brian Taber. He was a one club man, Gordon DCC. Victor Trumper had a casting eye over his cricket at Chatswood Oval that saw him go on to represent and captain New South Wales, play for Australia, tour overseas on four official Australian cricket tours and be closely involved with youth and senior cricket teams as a selector, manager, coach and mentor to many.

RONALD CARDWELL

© The Cricket Press Pty Ltd and RL Cardwell.

Image: RL Cardwell Collection © RL Cardwell

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