Sheer frightening pace can be found anywhere, not necessarily in the top-most echelons of the game or amongst the greatest of bowlers. Bowlers, virtually unknown, have been reported to bowl at lightening speed. Hammond writes about one such bowler he came across while playing a match during the war in Cairo where his opponents had a giant of a bowler whose name too he does not remember . . .
"When I say a giant, I mean Giant, for he was as large as Jim Smith of Middlesex, perhaps bigger, and when his sleeves were rolled up, the fabulous vilage blacksmith was put in the shade of his own spreading chestnut tree. . . .
Now I have played against a good many fast bowlers - Gregory, MacDonald, Farnes, Larwood, Voce, McCormick, Bowes, Gilbert the Aboriginal - but I have never seen anyone send the leather down faster than this soldier; I suppose the velocity must have passed 90 miles an hour; and now and again he bumped them so that they hummed as they rose off the ground.. . He was no more accurate than a thunderbolt is, but he took as much stopping. . . the enemy skipper put the Giant on as opening bowler. Perhaps it was just his day, perhaps the pure speed of the ball beat us. The first two wickets fell for no runs and when I went in to try to reprieve the situation, you could hear a pin drop.
I took my guard with as much care as in a Test match. I had been studying the bowler's action and delivery very carefully, and I had come out of the pavilion to accustom myself to the light before going in. The bowler ran up, his feet seemed to shake the ground, brought his arm over - and the ball was past me in a flash and in the wicket-keeper's gloves standing fifteen yards behind the stumps.
There were two more to come in the over, and I got my bat to both of them, blocking the ball, but wondering how many like that my bat would stand before it broke. In the following over from the other end I got a run or two and then came the 'Demon' again. . . after a lucky snick to leg which got me a boundary, I found a bumper coming that was certainly going to take off my head, hooked at it hastily and dragged it round to my leg stick. And for me, that was that; I'd had it"
I've never heard that story before. Pretty cool stuff.
As soon as a time machine is invented, I'm gonna accompany Shaun Tait back to that time just to see Hammond's face. Lol.
I like how Hammond (who was an intelligeant man) says
"...must've passed 90mph" instead of plucking a number out of the air like Tyson, Thomson, Marsh (in regards to Thomson), Benaud (in regards to Tyson) etc.
I don't think finding bowlers with pace is the problem. It's finding bowlers with pace AND accuracy which is so rare when we're talking 93mph/150kph+.
Normally guys who can bowl in excess of 90mph have trouble controlling the ball. Amjad Khan can bowl at 92-93mph but has absolutely no accuracy at that speed so comes down to 85mph.
I'm sure a lot of "Fast-medium" can max at 92mph or so, but won't be able to control where the ball ends up so it's useless.
That's why I'm such a big Jeff Thomson fan.
By the way, Hammond states that this Giant was bigger than Jim Smith, Here is Jim Smith of Middlesex batting. It gives an idea of the man's size.
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It doesn't help the wicketkeeper is standing in a ditch....
Charles Kortwright, JJ Kotze or William Burns would all be suitable examples of super quick bowlers from the pre Larwood era, unlike Fred Spofforth.
I think the fact wickets were so poor (well, good for bowling) helped with the illusion of "fast" bowling.
The thing which has gotten drastically better (overall) throughout the decades is wicket maintenence.
Kortright played at peak in the very late 19th to very early 20th century and Kotze in the very early 20th century. I can only imagine how poor the wickets were so the ball speed after it's left the bowler's hand would SEEM (although in reality not be) much quicker than someone bowling at the same speed nowadays.
There's a huge advantage of bowlers pre-speed gun. They can pick a number they want and someone will back it up regardless of whether it's true or not. There will be some moron on Cric Info who says a bowler is "one of the fastest bowlers of all time" or even "the fastest bowler of al time". It's complete unproven bollocks.
Nowadays, every ball is clocked so bowlers can't BS. We know Shoaib often bowled in excess of 93mph during his peak because there is proof. Whether people believe or disbelieve the accuracy of speed guns is another thing (though I think the only ones who disbelieve in their accuracy are those who thought they were faster), but that to me is more reliable than hearsay.
What do you think?
Equally, I imagine there were a handful of other bowlers who bowled around the 90mph\145kph mark in the 1930s and 1950s. Lindwall, Voce, Trueman
I think all of those would be viewed as "Fast-medium" today, personally.
Especially since Lindwall and Trueman are swingers and the general view of swing bowling (regular) is that it's best at "Fast-medium" pace (82-85mph).
That doesn't necessarily mean they COULDN'T bowl at 90mph, but I doubt they did unless bowling effort balls.
Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram held back so it's hard to compare between a balls-out paceman (Thomson, Lillee, Tait, Tyson, Shoaib, Holding etc) and the swingers (Trueman, Lindwall, Waqar, Wasim).
Legend has it that Halliwell stood up to take Kotze and that, as a result of Kotze's speed, he started the practice of putting steak inside his gauntlets - sounds like an apocryphal tale but I've seen it repeated in so many places I'm inclined to accept it at face value
Lol, that can't be true, surely?!
I'd take the bruise!