Cometh the hour, cometh the man

Much as we would all like to believe that this was an actual quotation signifying a moment of historical importance, it is not. It has in fact become a cliché, mostly in sporting contexts. It means that no matter what the situation; a man will appear who can turn the tide and win the contest. It is a saying that sounds biblical, but the closest we get is from John 4:23. “But the hour cometh, and is now.” Then there is an old English proverb, “Opportunity maketh the man.” In 1815, in his novel Guy Mannering, Sir Walter Scott wrote, “The hour’s come, and the man.” Later, in 1840, Harriet Martineau entitled her biography of Toussaint L’Ouverture The Hour and The Man. Thus, many writers have come close and there are hints that it might have derived from a hitherto untraced quotation, but to date none has been found. One source states that Cliff Gladwin, the Derbyshire bowler, who struck the winning run for England in the Kingsmead test against South Africa in 1948, was heard to say in a broad Derbyshire accent as he walked off, “Coometh the hour, coometh the man.”