Keith Stackpole - RIP

John Rogers | April 24, 2025

John Benaud’s story about Keith Stackpole takes some beating.

When the 1972-73 Australians arrived in Jamaica for the first test, the Island was full of stories about the new fast bowling sensation Uton Dowe. ”Good dat you know where the hospital is, mon”, was a typical comment, Dowe having recently peppered Trinidad with a barrage of bouncers. As the match began, Sabina Park “had the atmosphere of a Spanish bullfight, a cry for blood from an over-full crowd with hundreds perched outside on light towers and tree branches.”

At breakfast, seeing the legendary newspaper the Daily Gleaner “full of headlines about Dowe decimating Australia", Stacky stood up, tossed the paper away and said: “I’ll give ‘em Uton Dowe”. At the anthems, with the teams placed opposite one another, Stacky stood as close as he could and kept eyeballing Dowe. “It was like a prizefighter weigh in”, he would say later.

Greg Chappell would describe the first ball: “As Dowe started his run, the crowd noise grew louder, then louder and louder. As he hit his delivery stride it reached fever pitch - then for the split second it took for the ball to travel to Stacky’s end, there was this total and absolute silence - the most eerie feeling I have ever experienced.”

What happened to that first ball is not recorded. What is recorded is that Stacky took 35 runs off Dowe’s first four overs. Stacky would be out for 44 and follow up with 142 in the second. Dowe’s figures were 1 for 96, his wicket coming when the score was 428 and Rod Marsh swung so hard at a bouncer when on 97 that he hit his wicket - whereupon Ian Chappell declared. Dowe’s figures in the second innings were 0/72. Dowe would never play another test match.

Not only had Stacky cowed Dowe, he'd cowed the Wes Indies selectors, who opted to beat Australia via spin, decreeing wickets that would suit legendary off-spinner Lance Gibbs. The Aussies sighted future legend, the young Michael Holding and were quite grateful that the less pacy Vanburn Holder and Keith Boyce would keep Holding waiting for another day.

Greg Chappell would later say that most batsmen if they are honest, do not like facing very fast bowling. Stacky was an exception, he just loved it.

And he loved a run-chase. Ian Chappell was full of praise for two tricky run-chases. In England in 1972, Stackpole smacked an unbeaten 57 in chasing 81. In Guyana with the target 135, Ian Redpath would say; "Straightaway Stacky danced down the pitch to Keith Boyce who was quite sharp, and hoiked it over midwicket for four.” Chappell, with pads on to come in at no.3:” My heart leapt into my throat, watching the big fella smacking the ball all around in the air.” Redpath added: “At the end of the 4th over, there was a thud behind me - West Indian backsides hitting the ground."

Stacky was keen on cricket at grassroots too, staying on in Melbourne Grade, winning the Ryder Medal as the competition’s best player 3 times in 4 years. He described it: "as big a thrill as I’ve ever got in cricket”, in captaining Carlton to the 1977-78 premiership and scoring 132 not out.

All these are excerpts - with John Benaud’s permission - from his new book, “First Ball After Lunch”.

Stacky’s swash-buckling 207 in the first Ashes Test of 1970-71 was his top test score, and in addition to two more centuries in Australia, he hit hundreds in South Africa, England, India, and West Indies. That’s impressive. His opening partnerships with Bill Lawry averaged an excellent 44, and he was a very good and brave close-in fieldsman. Ian Chappell would say he was the best vice-captain he ever had.

He was friendly, cheery and outgoing, a good listener, a quality team-man and very good company. He was heavily built, and his slender opening partner Ian Redpath would say that running 2s of 3s with him could be problematic as “he turned like the Queen Mary". In the West Indies it was discovered he was quicker than he looked, as the swift Kerry O’Keeffe found out to his dismay when Stacky beat him in a specially arranged match-race over 60 metres.

Malcolm Conn’s comment in The Australian sums his cricket up best:

"In an era that had corpses with pads in opposing teams - Stackpole could be a wrecking ball.”

A good man to have in your side was Stacky.