Mate - a small, but powerful word.

In memory of Chris ‘Lefty’ Lethbridge (RIP)

Last weekend I heard the sad news of the untimely death of a mate. Chris’s passing seems unfathomably tragic and it is a deeply sad time for anyone who knew him. The grief his family will bear is hard to grasp, and my own sense of loss pales into insignificance.

The word mate is simple to understand. I once had the difficult task of explaining another four letter word to a graduate engineer when I worked and lived in India. That too is a simple, often-used word. I still don’t know why, after a technical lecture in Andhra Pradesh, this precocious young man decided to ask me about it. Had he asked me something easy about cricket or the back EMF voltage drop in a pilot circuit on a cutter-motor start-up, I could have answered easily. After over an hour of one-on-one conversation, I think I covered every context. I also made sure to stress that it was a word not to be used at the family dinner table or with his future bride.

‘Mate’ might not have the same myriad of meaning but for anyone who’s worked and lived in Australia then the ubiquitous expression is as much a part of the culture as the sea, the sun and the surf. In many ways and in the same context then Chris was a ‘mate’. I wouldn’t argue that we were very best bosom buddies, but a mate - someone who pulled on their overalls on a daily basis and did what was needed for the greater goal of the coal mine. A mate who shared some of the same values as you, believed in fairness, hard work and always was prepared to have a go. When times were tough, and the pressure was on and you wanted someone to walk the gruelling, God-forsaken miles up to West 2’s Drive House or fill-in on the pressure-filled cauldron of the coal face then Lefty would step up. He might lose that cheeky grin as you deployed him to the unenviable task but he’d go and give it his best shot. “Every team needs a Chris”, said my partner Sue, and although she only met him once, then I can’t think of a more fitting tribute or a poignant sentence. In life, in your team, in your business, ‘everyone needs a Chris’.

I signed Chris back on at the pit in 1990. North Selby Mine was British Coal’s last colliery in the Selby complex to begin production, and we were transitioning our workforce from contract-based staff to full-time British Coal employees. My own apprenticeship years in the decade before overlapped with Lefty’s at different collieries. He was already a well-known figure, a much more talented sportsman than I. His name regularly appeared in the sports pages of Coal News. While my sporting ambitions involved the oval ball, Chris was a renowned cricketer, knocking on the door of the famous Yorkshire team before ultimately signing with Warwickshire County Cricket Club. He played alongside England cricketing greats like Bob Willis, Dennis Amiss, and Gladstone Small. It wasn’t much of a decision to sign him back-on in the interview. Knowing the apprenticeship education he’d had in the mines before becoming a professional cricketer then it wasn’t an issue that he’d spent the last eight years picking up a duke ball and not a terminal screwdriver. He’d got the job before he walked in and sat down in front of me.

Two decades after my mining days were over we met again. Through social media we organised a great night at Headingley watching Yorkshire play Warwickshire in a T20 game. We spent the evening putting the world to right and reminiscing about our glory days, 1km deep below the earth’s surface, while listening to Chris’s legendary cricket stories. You were never short of a great tale when Lefty was around. After hearing about his memorable dismissal of “Two Knights of the Realm in 3 balls,” I whispered to Sue to fact-check it as she went to the bar. Sure enough, Google confirmed that Sir Viv Richards and Sir Ian Botham had both been dismissed by Chris’s fast-medium bowling in three consecutive balls. I shouldn’t have doubted him for a second. Apologies, mate.

In work, in life, we all make mates. On the sporting field, your brothers and sisters pull a shirt on with the same colours and strive for the team’s goals. At work you recognise those ‘mates’ that do things for you, and when you take positions of managerial responsibility and leadership you can’t forget it. When you need help they do their best and when they need you, you have to be there for them. Deflecting the pressure of a ￡2000-loss per minute breakdown and getting your team some thinking time whilst dealing with the invective of an erupting colliery manager. Those were memorable moments under pressure, in the depths of the earth. That’s what mates are for. Being there for your team, your mates, it’s an integral element of leadership too.

RIP Chris Lethbridge. I apologise for a personal, cathartic piece of my own grief with some tenuous connections to business. It helps me. I wish I could have helped more mate. ?

RIP Lefty.