Ken Taylor on Fred Trueman

Fred Trueman was the spearhead of the bowling attack throughout Ken’s years as a Yorkshire cricketer. Born into a mining family near Maltby, he had the great ability to swing the ball at high pace, and his fitness was such that, in a 20-year career which took in four major overseas tours, he never broke down. Each year he would play in more than 30 matches and at his peak, in the four summers from 1959 to 1962, he bowled 4,464 overs and took 623 wickets.

He was the first bowler to take 300 Test wickets, a total that might have been nearer 400 if the England selectors had been less reluctant to engage with his fiery reputation. He retired at the end of 1968, at the same time as Ken. Their last match together brought the championship to Yorkshire for the seventh time in ten years.

Fred was the greatest fast bowler I’ve ever seen. He had everything: a beautiful action, speed, control, stamina. And he had the will-power to bowl as quick at half past five as he did at half past eleven. He was a tremendous trier. He’d bowl 1,000 to 1,200 overs in a summer and never give up. He expected a wicket every ball, and he’d look disappointed if he didn’t get it.

We were paid about £20 for an away match, out of which we had to pay our own expenses, and about £12 – 10s for a home match. Well, Fred lived in Scarborough so a home match for him was an away match. He used to look at his pay after he’d taken out his expenses, and it came to about thirty bob. One pound fifty. He’d sit there: “Do they want me to bowl second innings?” But he always did. I only ever faced him in the nets, and he didn’t like anybody to hit him, even there. He’d always be trying.

Occasionally the Yorkshire team would play a football match, and Fred wasn’t a bad player in a rugged kind of way. He liked to play centre-forward – but then so did Closey. And neither of them had any idea of passing the ball. We needed three footballs – one for Fred, one for Closey and one for the other twenty of us.

I can see Fred now, coming in to bowl from the pavilion end at Bradford Park Avenue with the white wall behind him. He had a beautiful run-up. I would be at cover, Don Wilson at mid-wicket, and everybody else would be behind the bat. It was a wonderful sight. He came in at a slight angle to the bowling crease, his back foot would drop behind the bowling line and his front leg would go across. A typical sideways on action. It was so good that he automatically swung the ball away.

In those days it was a back foot law for no balls, and Fred would wear a metal plate on his toe cap. His back foot would drop behind the back line, and he would drag it forward about two feet so that, by the time he was releasing the ball, he was two foot over the front line. You can see it in the picture. Tyson did it, too. It meant that the ball was onto the batsman quicker.

He had strong shoulders and a big backside to give him power. The first three matches of the season were MCC at Lord’s, then Oxford and Cambridge. And by the end of that, Fred was fit. He rarely went out more than ten minutes before a match to warm up. Not many of us did. But he was always fit to bowl.

In Test matches he bowled with Brian Statham. Brian had an unorthodox action. He was open-chested, but he dropped the ball on the seam and moved it about. He bowled straight and quick and, if you missed, he hit the wicket. He bowled a slightly shorter length than Fred, who had to bowl fuller to give the ball a chance to swing. As a pair the two of them were magnificent.

For the last few years Fred was senior pro to Brian Close but, instead of turning to Fred, Closey would consult Illy, who was a great thinker about the game. Fred had so much natural ability, he didn’t have to think. But in our last season Fred was captain when we beat the Australians at Sheffield. In those days the tourist match was a hard game, not just a chance for practice like it is now, and we won by an innings. And Fred took wickets. He’d lost a bit of pace by then, but he was a crafty bowler. He knew his trade.

It’s the bowlers who win matches; the batsmen only save them. It was a great ten years, and a lot of it was due to Fred and the other opening bowlers: Bob Platt, Mike Cowan, Mel Ryan, Tony Nicholson. They all struggled uphill against the wind while Fred was coming down.  

If I’m ever asked to name the greatest fast bowler in my lifetime, I always say Fred Trueman.

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