Memories of Fred Trueman

Many people have memories of Fred Trueman as a cricketer, broadcaster and raconteur.

We would like to share your memories of Fiery Fred with other visitors to this site.

Please send us an email to memories@fieryfred.net with any stories you would like to share about one of Yorkshire's greatest sportsmen and characters.

Please also send your name and where you are from.

• As a child I was brought up as an avid Yorkshire supporter and whenever school permitted I would go to watch Yorkshire at the nearest county ground to my home in Great Ayton, Acklam Park Middlesbrough. Freddie was my hero and I loved to lay on the boundary with my scorebook and watch him tear into the opposition.
  
  I particularly remember his benefit year. The seaside buckets had just been passed around the ground for contributions to Fred's benefit fund and he was fielding at deep mid-off as a ball was delivered. The batsman cracked it straight towards our hero, whose 'long barrier' on this occasion let him down, and the ball shot between his legs towards the boundary.
  
  Fred hared after it somewhat red-faced, and I quickly realised that he was heading straight for me, prone next to the boundary line. I attempted evasive action but a large lump of Trueman caught me a glancing blow as he failed to stop the four. He got up, patted me on the head and said 'Alright son?', dusted himself off and made his way back to his position. I was naturally beaming, having been spoken to by my idol. A member of the Teesside public was less impressed, however, and Fred had hardly got four or five paces towards mid-off when he was regaled with the cry 'OW, TRUEMAN, I WANT ME TANNER BACK!!'
• Fred played a number of times for the British Airways Eccentrics CC and he was one of us. His death was too soon and filled us with great sadness . However our many memories of him fill us with great joy and to contribute to his statue fills us with pride. Roger Freeland, Ascot, Berkshire
  
• I am proud to donate £25 towards the statue of Fred. The finest player I ever saw and boyhood hero. Chris Lang, Horsham, West Sussex
  
• I enclose a cheque for £25 towards the Fred Trueman Statue to be erected in Skipton. It is a very fitting tribute to a unique bowler whose career I followed in its entirety. Shelagh J Robinson, Leeds, West Yorkshire
  
• Fred always gave me a great deal of pleasure watching him in action and as a young man, fancying myself as a fast bowler, would try to emulate him. Needless to say I never made it into the England team. P H Johnson Needham Market, Suffolk
  
• Fred's only concession to fatigue came after he had taken his 300th Test wicket at The Oval in 1964. Asked whether he thought his record would ever be broken, he said: "I don't know, but whoever does it will be bloody tired." Anonymous
  
• John Arlott the famous cricket commentator asked Fred for his ideas for a title for the biography he was planning to write about the great man.
  Only half-jokingly he suggested 'T'Greatest Fast Bowler Who Ever Drew Breath'.  Anonymous
  
• I was a student at Portsmouth when Yorkshire played Hampshire at the United Services Ground in the Fifties. Fred was giving the Hampshire batsmen a really hard time for an over, would then retire to the deep where he would laugh and joke with us spectators, and then go back on to bowl and do his best to take the heads off the Hampshire batsmen. No malice, but a real sportsman especially to us youngsters. I will certainly contribute to the appeal and will attend the unveiling if at all possible. Chris Hooper - Havant, Hampshire
  
• My Grandad died when I was 8 years old. The fondest memories I have are sitting with him watching Fred playing on TV. Because of that Fred will always be my hero.
  Philip Dyson - Barnsley, South Yorkshire
  
• Brian Close reported that when a know-it-all cricket anorak started boring the team during a stay in Hampshire, Trueman responded:"Can you tell me which English captain toured Australia and New Zealand and never played a Test match?" After a rare moment's silence, Fred triumphantly exclaimed: "Captain Cook!" Extract from 'Trueman's Tales', by John Morgan and David Joy (Great Northern Books)