It was obvious from the start that Fred was going to be something special. His action picked him out from the rest. It was a perfect cartwheel, sideways on action and the power he put into his delivery stride caused his shirt sleeve on his left arm to unravel every time he bowled. In the course of his delivery and follow through his right foot "dragged" to such an extent that he had to have the toecap on his right boot reinforced with a steel plate. His progress was hampered by having to spend two years in the RAF doing his national service between 1950 and 1952 and Yorkshire,who had such strength in depth in those days were looking at other options from their then bottomless well of trialists invited every year to the winter indoor sheds at Headingley. The coaches were Bill Bowes a fast bowler who was on the bodyline tour with Larwood and Voce, Maurice Leyland who was one of England's best left hand batsmen in the years between the wars and Arthur Mitchell who also played for England in the thirties and was a strict disciplinarian who put the fear of God into all who were lucky enough to have the chance to display their talents in front of him. One famous name to be awarded the DCM (Don't Come Monday) by Arthur was a left handed batsman who in his time opened the innings for Barnsley with first Dickie Bird and then Geoff Boycott, his name was Mike Parkinson. In the course of all this they came across another young bowler called Johnnie Whitehead who was readily available for selection whilst Fred was away in the forces and some members of the comittee wanted to give him preference.

Len Hutton was the Yorkshire senior professional in those days, however, and about to be appointed the first professional to captain England. Hutton knew that the secret to having the best team in the world was to have the best fast bowlers. For more years than he cared to remember he had been faced with Lindwall Miller and the like whilst the best we had to offer was Bedser (a magnificent medium pace bowler but not fast enough to be the number one strike bowler and such as Edrich( picked mainly as a batsman but often used as an opening bowler and Trevor Bailey, a dour all rounder but again not a strike bowler. Hutton realised that in Fred he had unearthed a diamond and the rest is history. Fred made his debut In Hutton's first test as captain, against India at Headingley in 1952 and he terrified the Indians who had never faced anything like it. In the second innings they lost four wickets before the first run went on the board. At Manchester he returned eight fo thirty two and so it went on. He was raw and he was fast. He only became the finished article however when he sacrificed a little speed and learned how to control the ball. As Sir Garfield Sobers wrote recently sheer pace isn't the problem to a good batsman it is the swing you have to master.

Suddenly England had a glut of fast bowlers, the fastest of all being Tyson. But that is all he was. Trueman had variety and Statham had speed and accuracy. The combination was to become the best ever.

If Harmison can become half as good he will do and don't forget he is under the wing of Martyn Moxon who for me is one of the best in the business. My choice for the right men to put English cricket back on the map would be Davi Byas as Manager and Martyn Moxon as coach.

Hello James,

I apologise for taking so long to reply to you but I have been away recently and have only just returned.

With regard to your questions about the great players of the past my first experience of watching cricket was in 1947 when I was nine years old so all my memories are of the post war era.

I do remember hearing about the exploits of some of the great pre war players including of course Sir Jack Hobbs whose record suggests was the greatest opening batsman ever and taking into account the fact that he scored a hundred centuries after reaching the age of forty, he most probably was although Len Hutton was the best I ever saw and had his career not been firstly interupted by the war years and then cut cruelly short by the injury he received and the subsequent effect upon his health, he would have run Hobbs very close. Hobbs had another great Yorkshire opening batsman as his test partner in Herbert Sutcliffe and the were probably the best opening pair ever. Strangely enough their respective county partners, Percy Holmes and Andy Sandham would have also made a fine opening pair for England if they had had the opportunity. Other great pre war batsmen who come to mind are Wally Hammond who was reputed to be second only to Bradman himself, "Ranji" and the left handed trio of Frank Wooley, Maurice Leyland and Eddie Paynter. Wilfred Rhodes was one of the greatest all rounders the world has ever seen, playing his last test match at the age of fifty two, A.P. Freeman a great exponent of leg spin, fast bowlers such as Sid Barnes, who played most of his cricket outside the test arena for Staffordshire in the Minor Counties, Maurice Tate, Ken Farnes, Harold Larwood, Bill Voce and Bill Bowes who was in the same class as my father at my old school and who took the wicket of "The Don" himself in the 1932/33 bodyline series and "Gubby Allen" who refused to take any part of the bodyline tactics made famous on that tour by Larwood and Voce. Two other great cricketers who sadly died whilst still at the peak of their careers were Roy Kilner who picked up a tropical disease whilst touring India and Headley Verity who was probably the best left arm spinner in the world but was killed in Italy on active service before having reached the peak of his career. Les Ames was a fine wicket keeper/batsman and two of the most famous captains were D.R. Jardine and J.W.H.T. (Johnny won't hit today) Douglas.

The nineteen fifties county scene was dominated by Surrey and Yorkshire. Surrey won the championship seven times on the trot before Yorkshire finally overtook them in 1959 which strangely enough came after their great side of the early fifties ha been disbanded.

On paper Yorkshire were always the stronger side, only Wilson, who toured Australia with England in 1954/55 and Ted Lester of their first choice side had not actually played for England and the team included Hutton, Watson, Close Illingworth, Wardle, Trueman and Appleyard, almost any one of whom would be included in the best post war England team
but Surrey ha their share of great players as well. May and Barrington were magnificent batsmen and their bowling attack of Loader, Bedser, Laker and Lock speaks for itself. Loader was unlucky to be around at the same time as Trueman, Statham and Tyson. Lock was a prolific left arm spinner (albeit with a dubious action) and a leg slip fielder of the highest class, Laker (a Yorkshireman by birth) was the best off spinner ever to play for England and Alec Bedser was the finest medium pace seam bowler the world has ever seen. The rest of the side was made up of honest county journeymen such as Eric Bedser (twin brother of Alec) Arthur McIntyre, Bernie Constable and latterly future England players like John Edrich, Mickey Stewart and Roy Swetman. The difference in the two sides was one man who stood head and shoulders above them all. He was a very ordinary medium paced seam bowler who rarely batted higher than number nine but he was a great leader. His name was Stuart Surridge and he moulded that side into a great unit before eventually handing over to Peter May.

That was the difference between the two sides. Yorkshire had a team of great individuals but led firstly by Norman Yardley, who captained England on a number of occassions and was a very useful all rounder but a weak captain who could not stand up to the likes of Wardle,Trueman, Close and Appleyard who were all outspoken individuals with a high regard for their owm ability. When Yardley retired the job should have gone to Hutton who had made such a success as the first professional captain of England but Yorkshire, like the MCC had a powerful comittee in those days and Herbert Sutcliffe wanted the job to go to his son, Billy who was an amateur and a useful county batsman on the fringe of the first team. He was a lovely man who knew his limitations and recognised he was not going to achieve the greatness of his father. He was one of the lads who preferred to enjoy a few beers with his team mates rather than the responsibilities of captainancy and when it became apparant he was not up to the job his father insisted he resign rather than risk damaging the family name by being sacked. They then appointed Ronnie Burnett who was second team captain at the time. He was thirty nine years old and had never played first class cricket. He was, however, in the Surridge mold and strong enough to stand up to any member of the team. Wardle had most to say about the futility of his appointment and foolishly went public in the Daily Mail. Burnett immediately recomended his sacking and received the backing of the comittee. This resulted in Wardle losing his place on the 88/89 Australian tour and he never played first class cricket again. Burnett gained full control of the team and after making a number of changes he introduced some of his youngsters from his second team days and the rest is history. They scored 216 runs in ninety five minutes in the last game of the 1959 season against Sussex at Hove and finally broke the Surrey stranglehold.

The rest, as they say is history. My other memories are of seeing thousands of people queue all night to see Bradman at Headingley in 1948. It was one of the best test matches ever. I saw Bradman score his last test century and Neil Harvey score his first as well as seeing Lindwall and Miller bowling in tandem. 1715 runs were scored for 30 wickets and the match in the balance until the last afternoon.

And I get accused of looking at the game through rose coloured spectacles!

To quote Michael Parkinson the reason I like to delve into the past is "because when I do I see a better game and I meet nicer people.

Regards,

Peter Foy.

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