Fred Trueman by Chris Waters

Author:Chris Waters
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781845137618
Publisher: Aurum Press
Published: 2011-10-13T16:00:00+00:00

Trueman and Statham first played together in 1954, opening the bowling against West Indies in Jamaica, but a combination of Trueman’s international exile and England’s pace bowling strength meant they appeared only seventeen times in harness before the opening Test of the 1960 series. Considering their names were inextricably linked, Trueman and Statham were not paired as often as one might imagine. They combined thirty-five times in Trueman’s sixty-seven and Statham’s seventy Tests, Trueman also opening the bowling in Test cricket with Alec Bedser and Peter Loader (five times), Frank Tyson, Alan Moss, Len Coldwell and Derek Shackleton (three), Trevor Bailey, David Larter and Fred Rumsey (two), and once with Harold Rhodes, Les Jackson, Jack Flavell and John Price. Trueman, in fact, never had a fixed opening partner throughout his career.

For Yorkshire, he took the new ball 802 times in first-class cricket. Discounting the Roses match at Old Trafford in 1966, when he bowled the only two balls of Lancashire’s first innings before the home side declared, he was partnered on the other 801 occasions by Tony Nicholson (188 times), Mel Ryan (126), Bob Appleyard (101), Bob Platt (98), Mike Cowan (70), Richard Hutton (37), David Pickles (29), Alec Coxon (27), Brian Close and Norman Yardley (21), Bill Foord (18), Philip Hodgson (11), Ray Illingworth (10), John Whitehead and John Waring (eight), Brian James and Don Wilson (six); twice by Eric Baraclough, Eric Burgin, Jack van Geloven, Peter Broughton and Peter Stringer; and once by William Holdsworth, Johnny Wardle, Ken Taylor, Keith Gillhouley, Brian Bolus and Chris Old. Trueman’s attitude to this avalanche of associates was summed up whenever he heard Platt boasting he used to be his partner at Yorkshire. ‘Aye, one of f***ing twenty-eight, Platty.’

Although Trueman therefore had a staggering forty-two opening partners for Yorkshire and England, Statham was by far the most recognisable. Born in Gorton, Manchester, in June 1930, the youngest of four brothers, Statham played his early cricket for Whitworth Street before joining Stockport in the Central Lancashire League. A talented footballer, he represented the same boys’ club as Roger Byrne, the Manchester United and England full-back. Byrne was one of eight Busby Babes killed in the Munich air disaster of 6 February 1958 – Trueman’s twenty-seventh birthday. Statham was good enough at football to be offered trials by Liverpool, Manchester City, Bury and Stockport County, but his father, a dentist, forbade him to attend. He wanted him to continue his education but when Lancashire offered a trial in 1949, Statham senior relented on condition his son made the grade within three years. Statham junior satisfied the proviso with two years to spare, making his first-class debut on his twentieth birthday. Wisden described him as ‘a youngster who carried his flannels in a canvas bag, and his boots in a brown paper parcel’.

The young Statham acquired a hat-trick of nicknames: ‘Whippet’, on account of his whippy, loose-limbed action; ‘Greyhound’, because of his smooth, effortless approach to the crease; and, most enduring, ‘George’. The latter –

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