FREDDIE TRUEMAN O.B.E.
Born 1931 Died 2006.
RIP Fred.
"Fiery Fred" was born in the village of Stainton, which is so close to Yorkshire's southern boundary that only a few hundred yards of ploughland separated Fred from Nottinghamshire citizenship!
His first club was Roche Abbey where, in his first four games, he took 25 wickets at a cost of only 37 runs. After that his progress through the Federation side and the Colts was rapid.
He played his first game for Yorkshire at Cambridge University in May, 1949, when he was 18 years old and he was described in Wisden as a slow left-arm bowler --- perhaps the most monumental error to occur in the columns of cricket's encyclopaedia.
He was awarded his Yorkshire cap on August 13th, 1951 and the following year played in the historic Test Trial at Park Avenue, Bradford, which was reduced to a nonsense by the bowling of Jim Laker who took eight wickets for two runs. FS, however, had the satisfaction of bowling the batsman he has always admired most - Len Hutton.
In 1952 he played his first game for England, under Len Hutton as the country’s first professional Test captain, at Headingley, and on the Saturday evening was mainly responsible for a second-innings score board which read: India, U for 4 wickets (three to FST in eight balls, one to Bedser in his six deliveries).
In the third Test, at Old Trafford, he totally demoralised the Indians by sheer pace and took eight for 31 which is still the best performance in England-India Tests.
He became the first bowler to take 300 Test wickets when Colin Cowdrey caught at slip the man who was to become one of Fred’s greatest friends --- the Australian fast bowler Neil Hawke ---at The Oval in 1964.
While others have passed the 300 mark in later years it is important to remember that Fred did it when far fewer Tests were played than are staged today and he did not have an unbroken run on international matches. In fact Fred’s 67 Tests were spread over a period of 13 years. If he had played in all the Tests he should have done, or even if his 67 had been more closely grouped together, there can be little doubt that Freddie Trueman would have topped 400 Test wickets. And remember, too, that when Fred was acquiring 307 Test wickets at 21.57 he was regularly taking 100 wickets a season for his county as well. He just missed his 1000 runs in Tests (981) and he took 64 catches, mostly in his specialist position at leg slip. In 1960, when he took 25 Test wickets in the series against South Africa, Fred also took 150 wickets for Yorkshire at 12.72.
In all he took 1,745 wickets for Yorkshire. He scored 6,852 runs for the county with centuries against Northants and Middlesex but his favourite quiz question is: "What about my hundred for England?" True. He had a ton for an England XI v Young England during a Scarborough Festival. In all cricket -Test, County and representative first-class matches -- his total haul of wickets was 2,304 and no other fast bowler in the history of the game can claim more. He bowled more than 20,000 overall, almost all of them with total commitment and implacable hostility And the proudest moment of his career was when he led Yorkshire to victory over the touring Australians at Sheffield in 1968 after which he retired. No one could have got out at the top more emphatically.
His achievements stamp him as England’s greatest fast bowler of all time end he was the greatest character of his day.
He was ever the master of' the instant epigram and his stinging one-liners linger in the memories of many players foolish enough to attempt a dialogue with him.
He was a member of Radio 3’s Test Match Special commentary team and for more than 20 years he wrote a cricket column for the Sunday People newspaper and earned renown as one of the most brilliantly-entertaining after-dinner speakers on the circuit.
Fred's Books...
Fred Trueman Talking Cricket
Fred has met almost everyone in the world of cricket, and in this book he tells of anecdotes and dialogues between him and other great players such as Don Bradman, Mike Atherton, John Major and Harold Wilson.
Please click here tofind out about Fred Trueman Talking Cricket.
Fred Trueman's Dales Journey
Stunning photographs and scenes of Fred's beloved Yorkshire Dales.
Please click here to find out more about Fred Trueman's Yorkshire Dales.