Yesterday’s sad news of Fred Trueman’s death has understandably produced many tributes across this morning’s papers.
Scyld Berry calls him the greatest of the greatest, in a touching homage in The Sunday Telegraph:
Michael Holding had a beautiful bowling action, Harold Larwood too, but nobody has matched Trueman for a classical side-on action. It was magnificent theatre, and being no fool but full of street wisdom, coming as he did from a mining community, the man himself knew it.
[…]
When Trueman reached the crease, his left arm was pointing towards the batsman as a veiled threat. When he lifted his left side into the air, his right arm was simultaneously cocked back, fully armed and ready to strike. The end-result was normally an outswinger to the right-handed batsman, if he had not been entranced by the spectacle which had unfolded before him.
Vic Marks, who shared a commentary box with Trueman for Test Match Special, offers similar sentiments and hints at the humour which made Trueman such an engaging character:
Trueman was notorious for spending much of the time in the opposition's dressing room, rather than his own, before the start of play. Puffing his pipe, he would announce to Yorkshire's opponents who would make up his five-wicket haul later in the day, pointing out in some detail how he was going to get them.
Ray Illingworth, who also started his career with Fred, said: 'There was always a smile on his face. There was no malice when he was telling them that he was going to find out whether they could hook or not.'
Stephen Brenkley writes in the Independent about the romance of his action:
He was assisted by a classical side-on action which was lent an additional romantic quality by his athleticism and mane of swirling dark hair. For the better part of 20 years and more he was an essential part of the national round, pipe man of the year among other things and a perennial card.
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