Quote:
Originally Posted by fredfertang
CB Fry on Barnes
“In the matter of pace he may be regarded as a fast or a fast medium bowler. He certainly bowled faster some days than others; and on his fastest day was certainly distinctly fast”
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This is one which in itself needs a few questions answered before we know what it means. I've already mentioned Shahid Afridi; 80mph is about his best. Some people tend to suggest that the first bowler to bowl what we now regard as "fast" (ie, 90mph and more) was Harold Larwood in the mid-1920s. Yet it has also been argued also that Larwood was no faster than Charles Kortwright, Charles Harenc and Samuel Redgate. It is very possible that fast has been what we know as fast since the dawn of overarm bowling.
If Larwood truly was the first to scale the true speed-of-light (metaphorical, of course), however, then Barnes' "fast" which CB describes may have been no faster than the fastest of Mark Ealham or Dominic Cork. Which, as I mention giving the example of Afridi, is a speed not beyond someone who normally bowls quick wristspin.