Alfred Cooper

Who was Alfred Cooper?

Alfred Henry Cecil Cooper was born in Johannesburg on 2 September 1893, and died in the same city on 18 July 1963, aged 72. Despite recording a duck on his first-class debut, he was a forceful batsman that scored, in all matches, 1,788 runs at 31.92, a highly respectable average for the period. In a career interrupted by the First World War, he played entirely for Transvaal between 1912/13 and 1928/29 and also represented South Africa in the first Test match of M.C.C.’s visit to the country in 1913/14. His best score, 171 not out, was hit against Western Province in a Currie Cup match at Johannesburg in December 1923 in which he and N.V. Lindsay shared a partnership of 174. He couldn’t reproduce this kind of form for South Africa and in his sole Test, played at Durban in December 1913, he scored just 6 and 0, a victim of Sydney Barnes in both innings. He also took one catch in that match, one of 27 dismissals he affected in this way during his career. Occasionally, he bowled right-arm medium-pace and took in all matches, 15 wickets at 37.06 runs apiece, his best figures being 3 wickets for 9 runs. No Obituary appeared within the covers of Wisden for Alfred Cooper.