Typhoon: A blast from the past

By Oliver Brett

FRANK TYSON FACTFILE Born: 6th June 1930, Farnworth, Lancashire Test career: 17 matches, 76 wickets at 18.56 First-class career: 767 wickets at 20.89

Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of the Test debut of one of England's fastest ever bowlers - Frank 'Typhoon' Tyson.

The Lancashire-born express paceman tore into Pakistan in 1954 at The Oval, taking 4-35.

It was a performance good enough to win him a place on the Ashes tour the following winter, and it was to prove a harrowing experience for Australia's batsmen.

Tom Graveney, an integral part of England's middle order, recalls: "When Frank bowled at Sydney in the second Test he had a 40-mile-per-hour gale blowing behind him.

"Don Bradman reckoned that was the quickest he had ever seen anyone bowl and he was quite terrifying.

"I fielded at slip for that match and I was 50 yards from the bat. I was nearer the gate to go off the ground!"

In the first Test at Brisbane, Tyson had been deposited to all parts of the ground by Arthur Morris and Neil Harvey, taking 1-160 as Australia won by an innings.

But he was a different bowler altogether at the SCG. With a shorter, more compact run-up, he took 10 wickets - enough to earn England a 38-run victory.

The momentum was now in England's favour and they ultimately retained the Ashes by winning the series 3-1. Crucially, Tyson took nine wickets in the Melbourne win and six more in Adelaide.

In that series, Tyson was complemented perfectly by Brian Statham, whose long, accurate spells into the wind gave the Aussies little respite.

He was 24 on that tour, but Graveney insists he could have been spotted earlier had he not been playing for Northamptonshire.

With Frank and Fred together you had the problem of who was going to bowl into the wind Tom Graveney

"The wickets there always favoured the spinners at Northampton so Frank was used just to take the shine off the ball.

"His action helped him move the ball away from the right-handers but he couldn't bowl slow.

"He put me out of the Test match in Brisbane when he hit me in the chest in the nets."

Tyson was famous for putting batsmen off their stride by merrily quoting Wordsworth and Shakespeare between deliveries.

"He was a highly intelligent man who had been at Durham University," concurs Graveney.

"That probably led to him retiring early because he was quite an academic.

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"He went back to Australia in 1958 and like a lot of us didn't have a good tour. But he married a lovely Australian girl and went off to teach there."

Tyson also commentated for a while, and has coached in India well into his seventies. He now mainly spends his days painting on Queensland Gold Coast.

But his Test career was almost criminally short - he hardly played at all with Fred Trueman, for instance - a heady combination that certainly proved too much for the New Zealanders in Tyson's final tour of 1958-59.

"With Frank and Fred together you had the problem of who was going to bowl into the wind," says Graveney.

As far as the Kiwis and just about anyone else was concerned, both men should have been forced to bowl into the wind.