At eighteen, he was invalided out of National Service.
At nineteen, he was refused life insurance because he was unlikely to live past forty.
It started early for Peter Philpott.
At four, he suffered a severe bout of rheumatic fever that left him with a damaged aortic valve.
He spent ten years convalescing.

As he recovered, he read voraciously.
Cricket and English history.
That made life worthwhile for him.
His family doctor had already told him: " You can either rust out or wear out."
He knew he had to get on with it.
Time was something which he didn't have in abundance.
He wanted to play cricket, teach and travel.

He was good at doing all three.
He played his cricket for New South Wales in Australia and during the winter, he travelled to Lancashire for league cricket.
After a few years, he realised his time was up.
For a season, he settled in South Africa, coaching a college team in East London.
He didn't want to come back to Australia on time for the season opener.
" Basically, I was trying to stop playing first-class cricket. When eventually I came home from England at the end of the 1960 season, I took the long way. I crossed the U.S. and boarded the Iberia at San Francisco, because it stopped in Japan and Hong Kong and all through Asia on the way back. I was sort of hoping I'd get back too late to start the season."

But then he heard radio broadcast of the Tied Test and realised that his cricket addiction was hopeless.
Overweight and unfit, he joined the NSW team in December and scored a century in the very first match.
Another three seasons later, he again realised that his time was up.

But the Test cap was yet to be earned. He made yet another comeback and played for Australia on eight occasions.

One of the most extraordinary careers in the history of Australian cricket.

Peter Philpott was born on November 21, 1934.