Classic stuff - Lots of Headingley 1961 in there - afterwhich apparently Trueman had a big bust up with his wife and slept in his car!

I know it\’s probably a trick of the camera, but if I didn\’t know better I\’d say his arm at point of delivery was as bent as Muralitharans….

and was that a slightly raised quarter seam…..?

As yes, Fred. I was a bit too young to rememeber him actually playing but I do recall rushing home from school at lunchtime in the early-mid 1970’s to watch him present a TV show called ‘Indoor League’. This was a bizarre North-of-England type show featuring such pub type games as bar billards, arm wrestling and, the never to be forgotten, shove ha’penny.

He presented it from a large leather armchair, pint in hand and puffing away on his pipe. He always signed off with ‘I’ll se’thee next week’.

Lovely action…. looks effortless. Wonder if someone could set up some tracking software on this video to estimate how long the ball takes to reach the stumps, and knowing the frame rate of course, figure out how fast Freddie was bowling.

Would be quite interesting.

How on earth can you pronounce on the legality of Fred’s bowling from a grainy, poor-quality video a few inches across? You either have some secret resolution-enhancing technology on your PC or you are seeing what you want to see.

And people did get called for throwing in Trueman’s day - just check out Geoff Griffin or Peter Loader’s details on Cricinfo.

Any excuse for WUMs with an axe to grind, if you ask me…

I think there’s a way you can measure how fast he was bowling, though i’m not sure how well it will work with this grainy video footage.

Damit i’ve forgotten it, i’ll remember it later, it’s a pretty accurate way i think.

Anyway, Fred looks to have a lovely action which puts the likes of Liam far too overcoached Plunket to shame. It’s all so natural.

He doesn’t look that quick for the things i’ve been hearing about him but that’s probably just the footage.

I agree with most posters: beautiful, fluid, smooth action. I was lucky enough to see him play against Windies in 1963; to see Fred and graceful Gary Sobers on the same pitch was unforgettable.

To those with a current axe to grind: I’m English and think Darrell Hair should never umpire again, and the ICC should never have let him get this far. The man is a disgrace. But don’t involve Trueman in this; the game was different then, let’s just enjoy bowling grace when we see it, whether it’s Fred, Gary, Courtney W, Dennis L, Shoiab A, Richard Hadlee, whoever.

It is an excellent piece of history. A note on the batsmen involved will be appreciated.One can only guess who they are. I believe I can identify Joe Solomon in the penultimate shot.

Zulfikar, I did not see any problem with Fred’s bowling action. Infact his action is one of the most natural bowling action I have seen. Please dont compare Shabbir’s action to this great legend. To me Shabbir’s action can be used in a geometry class to describe what a right angle looks like :).

In terms of speed, none of these show Fred bowling at anywhere near his quickest. At Headingley in ‘61 and Edgabaston in ‘63 he got his wickets by cutting his run and his pace and bowling leg-cutters - a decent trick if you know how to do it. The 300th wicket at the Oval came long after he’d lost his quickest pace.

When bowling at his quickest he was as quick as anyone, and with that natural outswing he was often unplayable. Comparable with Wes Hall - you really didn’t get on the front foot to him without checking your personal insurance first.

The canard about chucking really is just so much rubbish -the same thing’s been said about Larwood and Lindwall when shot from the same angle. If you look at the way his chest’s facing, and where his feet pointed at the moment of delivery, well, he’d have to be a bloody contortionist to be chucking. Anyone who’d even think he might chuck is suffering from twisted brain.

He was also, for what it’s worth, a perfect natural gentleman who could be very unpleasant when condescended to by selectors, committeemen or southerners, but utterly generous with his time and attention when talking to a genuine Yorkshire cricket fan.

Well, he was with me.

No disrespect to fred, but looking at this film he its doubtful he’d be nicknamed ‘feiry fred’ if he played today is it? Do you thihk he’d
even play for England?

Oooh, just the thought of Fred addressing Hayden’s footwork issues!!!! You could sell tickets for that! Not that the confrontation’d last all that long.

I once saw Fred dismiss I think it was Ian Hall of Derbyshire by hitting him full on, just below the knee-roll. The bloke limped and I mean limped off.

Fred Trueman’s action is as natural and textbook as anyone that has ever played.

Also remember that in those clips he was past 30 years old, and was using swing and cutters to take wickets. Rather like Richard Hadlee did.

In his early days he was in the 90 mph speed range.