The Anonymous Widower

Two Freddies

Freddie Flintoft’s exploits on Monday morning as he bowled out the Australians to win the Second Test were awesome and he deserved the Man of the Match award.  There was fire, accuracy and variation in one of the best displays of fast bowling by an England fast bowler in recent years.

I’m also reminded of another display of awesome fast bowling, by another Freddie, that I was lucky enough to see on television in 1961.  It was at Headingley and the bowler was the legendary Fred Trueman.  This paragraph comes from his obituary in The Times.

Trueman stored away in his memory his ideas of every batsman’s weakness, whether it be a lowly undergraduate or one of the great players of the day, and he expected to take a wicket with every ball he bowled. He had such a wonderful range that at Headingley in the Third Test match in 1961 he was able to take 11 Australian wickets for 88 runs bowling quickish off cutters (including a spell of five wickets for no run in Australia’s second innings), and two years later, in the Third Test match against West Indies at Edgbaston, to take 12 for 119 with pace and swing (the last of six of them coming in 24 balls at the cost of one scoring stroke).

Sadly, England lost that 1961 series by two matches to one.

I hope that’s not an omen for this series.

July 22, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Sport | Cricket