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FRED TRUEMAN

In his first Test match against India in 1952, Fiery Fred posted match figures of 7-110 on his home ground of Headingley…

Three of his victims were clean bowled for golden ducks and he continued apace to finish the series with 29 wickets at 13.31, including an 8-31 in the first innings at Old Trafford. Why then, you may wonder, did he only played a further 66 tests over the next 13 years? “Quite simply, the selection committee did not like my forthright attitude which they interpreted as being bolshie,” he said in one of many autobiographies.

 

In all, he was left out of 51 Tests between 1952 and 65’. And looking at his records, it’s difficult to refrain from poking one of your eyes out in despair. His 307 wickets at 21.57 arrived at a strike rate of 49.1 balls. Of the 16 bowlers who’ve since joined the 300 Club, only Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose have bettered his average, and only Marshall, Waqar Younis and Alan Donald have beaten his strike rate. Had he continued to bowl at his average of 4.5 wickets for those 51 Tests, he’d have retired with 536, a mark that only Glenn McGrath has surpassed.

 

Swinging it at pace, he bowled consistently at the stumps and took 1,745 first-class wickets for Yorkshire (at 17.12), claiming 100 wickets in a season on 12 occasions. A known curmudgeon, he was dropped from Test Match Special in his retirement for, among other things, claiming that Ian Botham, ‘couldn’t bowl a hoop down a hill’, yet found solace in presenting Indoor League on Yorkshire TV in the 70s. With his pint of bitter and a pipe, he presided over darts, bar billiards, shove ha’penny, skittles and arm wrestling, signing off each week with the legendary, “I’ll si thi.”

 

In 2005, one year before his death, a book was released in celebration of the 50 greatest people of Yorkshire. Fred was on it, one place above Brian Clough. Imagine the argument…

 

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