160 Facts About Fred Trueman

Fred Trueman had professional status and later became an author and broadcaster.

Fred Trueman was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career.

Fred Trueman was awarded his Yorkshire county cap in 1951 and in 1952 was elected "Young Cricketer of the Year" by the Cricket Writers' Club.

Fred Trueman was awarded the OBE in the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to cricket.

In 2009, Fred Trueman was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Not long before his death in 2006, Fred Trueman appeared to discover that Mrs Stimpson was Jewish.

Fred Trueman said that he was happy to be considered Jewish but joked that he would be very reluctant to give up on bacon sandwiches.

Fred Trueman's parents were Alan and Ethel Trueman and he was the middle one of seven children.

Fred Trueman's grandfather had been a horse dealer and his father worked primarily with horses too, though for a time he was a coalface worker at Maltby Main.

Fred Trueman's parents instilled into all the children a strong sense of discipline and the values of honesty and forthrightness.

Fred Trueman's education began at the village school in Stainton where his teachers recognised his talent for cricket.

Fred Trueman's father was captain of the Stainton club and Trueman used to accompany him to matches, once playing for the club when he was only eight years old.

When Fred Trueman was twelve years old, the family moved to a larger house on Tennyson Road in nearby Maltby, where Fred Trueman attended Maltby Secondary School.

At Maltby Secondary School, Fred Trueman had two teachers called Dickie Harrison and Tommy Stubbs who recognised his talent as a bowler and picked him for the school team, even though he was much younger than the other players.

Fred Trueman's school playing career was interrupted for two years after he was seriously injured by a cricket ball that hit him in the groin.

Fred Trueman started playing again in 1945 when he was fourteen but left school that summer to start work, initially in a newsagent.

Fred Trueman had several jobs before becoming a professional cricketer.

Inhibited by his injury, Fred Trueman might have given up on cricket at this time but instead, motivated by his family, he joined a nearby village club called Roche Abbey, playing regularly for them in 1946.

Fred Trueman was successful at Roche Abbey and, before the 1947 season when he was sixteen, came to the notice of former Yorkshire player Cyril Turner who was coaching the Sheffield United Cricket Club which played at Bramall Lane, a ground then in regular use by Yorkshire for first-class cricket.

Fred Trueman played some matches for Sheffield United's Second XI team in the 1947 season and was then promoted to the first team so that he could play in the Yorkshire Council League.

Fred Trueman enjoyed a successful season with Sheffield, saying that "the year 1948 proved a good one for me".

Fred Trueman had already met a number of great Yorkshire players including George Hirst and he was delighted by an end of season newspaper report in which Herbert Sutcliffe predicted that Trueman would play for Yorkshire before he was nineteen and for England before he was twenty-one.

Fred Trueman made his first-class debut on Wednesday, 11 May 1949 in the three-day match against Cambridge which Yorkshire won by 9 wickets.

Fred Trueman was mistakenly described as a spin bowler in the Wisden match report.

Opening the bowling in both innings with Brian Close, who was medium pace, Fred Trueman took two for 72 and one for 22 as Cambridge were dismissed for 283 and 196 respectively.

Yorkshire scored 317 for six declared and 164 for one so Fred Trueman, who was number 11 in the order, did not bat.

Fred Trueman had match figures of six for 72 in his second match against Oxford, which Yorkshire lost by 69 runs.

Fred Trueman, once he became established, was a clear breach of Yorkshire tradition.

The main team changes in 1949 were the retirement of Frank Smailes; the immediate establishment of Close and Lowson, who played in 22 and 24 championship matches respectively while Fred Trueman only played in four; and an injury to Aspinall who was restricted to just three games.

Fred Trueman played in eight first-class matches in 1949, all for Yorkshire; in five matches for the Second XI in the Minor Counties Championship; and in one other match for Yorkshire's first team against an Army XI which included another up and coming fast bowler, Frank Tyson.

The third issue of Playfair Cricket Annual in 1950 said that Fred Trueman was "built for the job of a fast 'un, and with the spirit too" but added that "Yorkshire will not hasten his development or that of any other promising player".

Fred Trueman's oft-stated view of himself was "t'fastest bloody bowler that ever drew breath".

Fred Trueman made twelve appearances in the County Championship and played for "The Rest" against England in a Test trial.

Fred Trueman made only one appearance for the Second XI.

Fred Trueman's inclusion was designed to give the England batsmen practice against fast bowling even though, at this period of his career, he was inaccurate in both length and direction.

Fred Trueman faced the added problem of trying to succeed in an atmosphere of prevailing "discontent in the dressing room" which amounted to much more than a typical "them and us" situation between players and committee.

Fred Trueman said that the team itself was "split into cliques", specifically the "gentlemen players" and one or two senior professionals like Hutton, who had social ambitions, on the one hand; and the younger professionals like himself, Close, Illingworth and Lowson on the other.

Fred Trueman was downhearted enough at this time to even think about joining Yorkshire's traditional rivals Lancashire.

Fred Trueman was an "apt pupil" and Bowes said of him: "He had the three great assets for the job: a love of fast bowling, a powerful physique and a smooth cartwheel action".

The next stage in Fred Trueman's development was to harness his speed and exercise full control of the ball.

All four of Fred Trueman's career hat-tricks were taken for Yorkshire and this is a county record he shares with George Macaulay.

The hat-trick match was the second time Fred Trueman had destroyed the Nottinghamshire batting that season.

Fred Trueman might have expected that eleven-wicket haul at Bramall Lane to firmly establish his place in the Yorkshire first-team but his immediate reward was to be rested and given twelfth man duties with the Second XI, who were playing against Lincolnshire at Cleethorpes Sports Ground.

Fred Trueman quickly swallowed his disappointment and his eight for 53 at Trent Bridge was summarised by one of his biographers Don Mosey as "the start of the Trueman era".

Fred Trueman undertook his national service in the Royal Air Force at RAF Hemswell in Lincolnshire.

Fred Trueman was there through the next two seasons until he was demobilised at the end of the 1953 season.

Fred Trueman was fortunate in having a station commander in Group Captain Jim Warfield who was a cricket enthusiast and was willing to grant him leave for Test and occasional county matches.

Fred Trueman claimed that he was the first person to be mentioned in Hansard in a cricketing connection.

England, for whom Fred Trueman opened the bowling with Alec Bedser, won the match in four days by 7 wickets.

Fred Trueman finished with four for 27 as India recovered to score 165.

Fred Trueman had a problem during the season in "a tendency to get stitch", which was diagnosed as "a lack of regular fast bowling exercise".

Fred Trueman was restricted to five championship appearances but Yorkshire did get Brian Close back from his national service.

Holdsworth played 24 matches in 1952 and 1953 only; but never again after Fred Trueman returned to full-time action in 1954.

Fred Trueman played football for Lincoln City during his national service.

Fred Trueman was a forward, playing either as a striker or on the wing.

Fred Trueman missed the first four Tests, which were all drawn, and played in the last at the Oval which England won by 8 wickets, partly thanks to him taking four important wickets.

Fred Trueman played in eight first-class matches, including three of the five Tests, and took 27 wickets at 33.66 with a best effort of five for 45.

Hutton discouraged fraternisation with the West Indies players and this went decidedly against Fred Trueman's grain, given that he was a gregarious character who liked nothing better than to fraternise.

Fred Trueman had made friends with Frank Worrell and other West Indian players when he met them in English league cricket and objected strongly to Hutton's policy, claiming that he was not alone in this and especially as Hutton gave no reason for it.

Fred Trueman quickly alienated the West Indian crowds who disliked his belligerent style, especially when he followed instructions and did not show sympathy for batsmen he had hit with the ball.

Fred Trueman fell foul of off-field incidents too, including one in which he and Tony Lock were blamed for something done by Denis Compton who, as the "golden boy" of English cricket, was effectively beyond reproach.

At a dinner, Fred Trueman is said to have ordered a local dignitary, apparently the Indian High Commissioner: "Pass t'salt, Gunga Din".

Fred Trueman never forgave Hutton and the two never played together for England again.

Fred Trueman played in the first Test at Sabina Park but, with figures of two for 107 and none for 32, he proved expensive and West Indies won by 140 runs.

Fred Trueman was omitted from the team for both the second and third Tests but then recalled for the fourth at Queen's Park Oval which was drawn; Trueman again struggled and had a return of one for 131 in the first innings as West Indies amassed 681 for eight declared, all of the famous "Three Ws" scoring centuries: Everton Weekes 206, Frank Worrell 167 and Clyde Walcott 124.

Fred Trueman was retained for the final Test at Sabina Park which England won by nine wickets to square the series two apiece.

Fred Trueman opened the bowling with Bailey and returned figures of two for 39 and three for 88, while Bailey produced a match-winning seven for 34 in the first innings when West Indies were all out for only 139.

Jim Kilburn wrote that, at the age of 23, Fred Trueman "had acquired a man's physique for fast bowling that questioned the courage as well as the technique of opposing batsmen".

Fred Trueman played in 33 matches and, for the first time, exceeded 100 wickets in a season.

Fred Trueman's tally was 134 at 15.55 with a best return of eight for 28.

Arlott mentions the hard work put in by Fred Trueman to improve his bowling, first by "smoothing out the last minor unevenness in his run-up" and then by achieving increased accuracy.

Fred Trueman said in his autobiography that Yorkshire in the early to mid-1950s were constantly let down by divisions in the team, blaming both Yardley and Hutton for the problems.

Fred Trueman became engaged to his first wife, Enid Chapman, in September 1954 and they married in March 1955.

Fred Trueman worked as a furniture salesman through the winter months.

Fred Trueman did force his way back into the England team for the second Test at Lord's in 1955, when England defeated South Africa by 71 runs.

The Australians visited England in 1956 and, Peter May having succeeded Hutton as England captain, Fred Trueman was recalled for two Tests.

Fred Trueman had done enough to retain his place for the third Test at Headingley where England won by an innings and 42 runs.

Fred Trueman opened the bowling with Bailey and took one for 19 and one for 21, dismissing Colin McDonald in both innings.

Fred Trueman made 31 first-class appearances in 1956 but had difficulty with a persistent strain in his left side, exacerbated by occasional sciatica, and he reverted to his long run after more problems with drag at the start of the season.

Yardley was succeeded as captain by Billy Sutcliffe, with whom Fred Trueman had a good relationship.

Fred Trueman overcame his side strain and recovered his form, taking 27 wickets in his first four matches.

Fred Trueman was selected for the first Test against West Indies and kept his place for the entire series.

Fred Trueman was England's leading wicket-taker with 22 at 20.68.

Fred Trueman played in 32 first-class matches in 1957, taking 135 wickets.

Fred Trueman had an outstanding time in his favoured leg slip position, holding 36 catches.

Not an accomplished player, though he had previously captained the club's Second XI, he was a good man-manager and a firm disciplinarian who could get the best out of what was to be a new team in which Fred Trueman was, apart from Brian Close and Vic Wilson, the most experienced player.

Fred Trueman played in all five Tests against New Zealand in 1958, taking 15 wickets in the series at an average of 17.06.

Fred Trueman pulled off a remarkable anticipatory catch in the Lord's Test when he stepped forward from his short leg position to catch the ball off a defensive stroke with his hand on the batsman's boot.

Fred Trueman was fit in time for the second Test but was not selected.

Fred Trueman took part in the last three Tests, taking nine wickets with a best analysis of four for 90.

Fred Trueman made a major contribution to that success as he took 140 wickets.

Fred Trueman owed personal loyalty to Burnet and had developed affinity with his younger colleagues.

Fred Trueman bowled the most overs and took the most wickets, 24 at 16.70.

Fred Trueman played in all five Tests that summer against South Africa yet still captured 150 wickets for Yorkshire, sometimes serving as a fast-medium bowler off a shortened run.

Fred Trueman made 32 first-class appearances and took 175 wickets, the highest season tally of his entire career, at the outstanding average of 13.98.

Fred Trueman played in the first four Tests against Australia in 1961 and, although he effectively won the third Test for England, they failed to regain the Ashes.

Fred Trueman took eleven wickets in the match for 88 runs, his best performance in Test cricket to date, and England won by eight wickets with two days to spare.

Fred Trueman scored 840 runs, which was the best season tally of his whole career but, because of inconsistency, he remained well short of the standard required if he was to be termed an all-rounder, though that is not something he ever pursued given his workload as a specialist bowler.

Fred Trueman took 22 wickets in the series, his best match being the second Test at Lord's in which he took nine, the highlight being six for 31 in the first innings to bowl Pakistan out for only 100.

Statham did not play in New Zealand and Fred Trueman was then able to overtake him, extending the record to 250.

Fred Trueman took three for 83 and five for 62 in England's victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when captain Ted Dexter used him in short bursts, setting defensive fields until he could return.

Fred Trueman took eleven wickets in the match with six for 100 and five for 52.

Richie Benaud, who had just joined BBC TV, said that Fred Trueman "showed wonderful control of swing and length" in a "magnificent" performance.

Fred Trueman took 76 wickets in the Championship, 34 in Tests and 129 in all matches.

Fred Trueman captured five wickets in each innings when Yorkshire defeated West Indies at Acklam Park, eight for 45 against Gloucestershire at Bradford and, for England, had a match return of 12 for 119 at Edgbaston.

Fred Trueman scored two centuries, the first of his career, one against Northamptonshire which Kilburn described as "timely in the context of the match" and the other at the Scarborough Festival where he hit six sixes and 11 fours in 67 minutes.

Fred Trueman was selected for the first three Tests against Australia in 1964, was omitted from the fourth and then recalled for the fifth in which he became the first bowler to capture 300 Test wickets.

In Kilburn's view, Fred Trueman's "decline" was "not from skilful and purposeful and beautiful bowling but from devastating fast bowling" and it may have been accelerated by the change in 1964 to the no-ball law which, he contends, impacted the rhythm of fast bowlers with long run-ups culminating in a long delivery stride.

Fred Trueman continued to play first-class cricket for Yorkshire till the end of the 1968 season when his retirement was by his own decision.

Fred Trueman bowed out of Test cricket with a then world record of 307 wickets at an average of 21.54.

Fred Trueman made 33 first-class appearances in 1966 and was able to focus on his county career, helping the team to win the first of three consecutive County Championships to 1968.

Fred Trueman took 111 wickets, the twelfth and final time that he achieved 100 in a season.

Fred Trueman made 31 first-class appearances in 1967 but greatly reduced his workload as a bowler, operating mainly in short spells.

Fred Trueman had recognised that he could no longer maintain fast pace for the same time as he had done formerly, though he did comment on encountering "any number of sluggish wickets that summer".

In 1968, with Brian Close injured for a long period, Fred Trueman was Yorkshire's acting captain in several matches and ensured that the team completed their hat-trick of titles.

Fred Trueman showed great tactical awareness throughout the match with a timely declaration of Yorkshire's innings and then ensuring that Australia faced slow bowlers only during periods of poor light.

Fred Trueman himself took key wickets and Yorkshire, always in control, "surged confidently to their victory".

Fred Trueman followed his policy of the previous season by bowling in short spells.

Fred Trueman admitted that he would be unable to cope with a similar display of emotion by Yorkshire followers and postponed his announcement until well after the season had ended.

Fred Trueman surprisingly reappeared in 1972 when he joined Derbyshire and played in six limited overs matches.

Fred Trueman's autobiography has an extensive career stats appendix starting on page 381.

In 603 first-class matches, Fred Trueman scored 9,231 runs, including three centuries, with a highest score of 104 and held 439 catches.

Fred Trueman took 2,304 wickets, including four hat-tricks, at an average of 18.27 with a best analysis of eight for 28.

Fred Trueman took a then world record 307 Test wickets with a best analysis of eight for 31.

Fred Trueman achieved 100 wickets in a season on 12 occasions, with a best return of 175 wickets in 1960.

Fred Trueman holds the record for most consecutive first-class matches played in which he took a wicket.

Fred Trueman played in only 18 limited overs matches and took 28 wickets.

Fred Trueman took his bowling very seriously indeed but he liked to entertain when he was batting or fielding.

Fred Trueman always maintained his hostility towards the perceived arrogance and "snobbishness" of some in the cricketing establishment, especially the likes of Allen.

John Warr, with whom Fred Trueman shared his first-class debut, wrote that from the beginning of his career, Fred Trueman's run-up was "curving and long but nicely modulated".

David Frith continued with Fred Trueman reaching the wicket, where he turned his body side-on and cocked back his ball-carrying right arm, as the leading left arm was hoisted, before "an awesome cartwheel" sent him into a follow through which "resembled a Sea Fury finishing its mission along the runway of an aircraft carrier".

Fred Trueman himself maintained that his ability to bowl outswingers consistently was "another new ingredient I brought to the county game".

Fred Trueman had a "resilience of spirit as marked as the physical power that gave him such remarkable freedom from injury over the years".

Fred Trueman's name on the team-sheet was "an advertisement for any match".

Fred Trueman's method was a long, accelerating run-up ending in a wide delivery stride with a "cartwheel" swing of the arms and a balanced follow-through.

In Warr's view, Fred Trueman learned that it was unwise to always follow a boundary with a bouncer and instead he cultivated the yorker as "a potent weapon".

Fred Trueman was one of the most charismatic cricketers of the post-war period and this charisma has been summarised by Mick Pope and Paul Dyson in "the rolling up of the flapping shirt sleeve on the walk back to his mark; the tossing back of the wayward locks of black hair before the smooth accelerated run to the wicket culminating with a high cartwheel action and drag of the back foot through the crease", the conclusion being that "Fred Trueman is one of English cricket's icons".

Fred Trueman would have considered this to be an understatement as he believed himself to be "t'finest fast bowler that ever drew breath" and there were many who agreed with him.

Fred Trueman preferred to field close in, his favourite position being leg slip, and he was a fine and safe catcher.

Warr says Fred Trueman was a "brilliant ambidextrous thrower" and he "made life very easy for his captain to place him advantageously in the field".

Fred Trueman lacked the necessary consistency as he batted primarily to entertain but he had a good defensive technique with a range of attacking strokes which he would employ boldly.

Fred Trueman was an expert summariser for the BBC's Test Match Special radio cricket commentaries from 1974 to 1999, forming close friendships with commentators John Arlott and Brian Johnston.

Fred Trueman was noted for his dislike of many aspects of the modern game, especially one-day cricket and the frequency with which current fast bowlers sustained injury.

Fred Trueman was criticised by some for being unduly negative about current players and for glorifying cricket "in my day".

Fred Trueman was nevertheless respected for his unsurpassed knowledge of the mechanics of fast bowling, and many feel he should have been used as a bowling coach for England's under-achieving teams of the 1980s and 1990s, a point once emphasised by his fellow-summariser Trevor Bailey on Test Match Special.

Lillee was having trouble with both his run-up and bowling action, problems that Fred Trueman had already observed and mentioned on the radio.

Fred Trueman gave Lillee the technical advice that provided the solution and Lillee was able to recover his form, though this was at the expense of England.

Fred Trueman received criticism from many people in the England camp for helping an Australian player, especially after Lillee publicly acknowledged his debt to Fred Trueman.

Fred Trueman anchored the programme with a pint of bitter and his pipe to hand, and signed off each week with his catchphrase, "Ah'll sithee".

Fred Trueman made guest appearances in many British television programmes of the 1970s.

Fred Trueman played himself in an episode of Two in Clover, where he appeared alongside Sid James and Victor Spinetti.

Fred Trueman's character bowled one ball and then retired with a shoulder injury.

Fred Trueman was the subject of This Is Your Life on 5 December 1979.

Fred Trueman wrote a column in the Sunday People newspaper for 43 years to provide coverage of cricket and rugby league.

Fred Trueman married Enid Chapman on 19 March 1955 at All Saints' Church, Scarborough, and had three children: Karen, Rebecca and Rodney.

Fred Trueman was a monarchist and long-time supporter of the Conservative Party.

Fred Trueman was diagnosed with small cell carcinoma of the lung in May 2006.

Fred Trueman died of the disease on 1 July 2006 at Airedale General Hospital in Steeton with Eastburn, West Yorkshire.

Fred Trueman's body was then interred in the Priory's cemetery.

On 18 March 2010, a bronze statue of Fred Trueman by Yorkshire-born sculptor Graham Ibbeson was unveiled by Veronica Fred Trueman at the Leeds and Liverpool Canal basin in Skipton.