Being English, and growing up watching cricket when we were pretty dire, he always struck me as someone who stood out from the English crowd.
Never gave anything away, hated being hit to the boundary, hated losing generally.
Could bowl sides out in anything resembling helpful conditions and tie batsmen down on a road-track if needs be.
Prior to his hip injury, was clearly a few mph quicker than the medium-fast plodder that most remember. Never expres quick, but certainly lively and capable of generating Ambrose-esque bounce off a decent length.
THAT version of Angus (sole positive in 1989 Ashes, First three Tests of 1989/90 WI series) was well rated, feared and for good reason.
One of the few English players to be respected by Australians during the 'dark period'. Their main gripe seemed to be with our softness and tendency to roll over, and you couldn't level that at Gus in this lifetime or the next.
The effort he put into every ball and clear knackered-ness he exhibited at the end of a spell was evidence of how much he cared.
If only we'd had ten others like him...
For whatever reason, Ray Illingworth never took a shine to Angus. One bad game and he was out. Just as well he was England's top performer in a mediocre period.
He eventually sussed out how to cramp Brian Lara for room and bore him out. On one occasion, he had Lara caught behind in a county game and a shout went up from the crowd when he returned to the outfield.
"Oi Gus" went up the cry..
"Yeah" he said - expecting some kind of compliment for dismissing Lara.
"I came to watch Lara bat, not you bowl. I'm off" - charming...
When he got Lara again in a Test match in the West Indies, Angus went up screaming with delight. His team-mates wondered why he was so ecstatic having already done the little master several times.
"That's 123 test wickets - one more than Ray Illingworth", was the explanation.
Illingworth was an arse who set English cricket back ten years IMO. The strange downer he had on Angus, their most successful bowler of the decade by any statistical measure, is a massive part of the reason why.
In the interests of balance, it's worh adding he was a mediocre fielder suited only to work on the boundary and a poor batsman who had courage, a decent defence and understood he might get hit (think Tufnell with balls).
However, injury and the Yorkshire control freak (yes I'm a Lancastrian) deprived England of their best bowler and that bowler of a 3-4 hundred wicket test career instead of the relatively paltry 46 test caps he actually got.
177 wickets at 27.32 and a miserly economy rate aren't to be scoffed at - especially in a team that oscillated between average and pathetic.
So - mainly for those from outside England, was Angus bona fide world class, just outside or an average bowler that a few of us (myself included) have over-rated in our heads?
Never gave anything away, hated being hit to the boundary, hated losing generally.
Could bowl sides out in anything resembling helpful conditions and tie batsmen down on a road-track if needs be.
Prior to his hip injury, was clearly a few mph quicker than the medium-fast plodder that most remember. Never expres quick, but certainly lively and capable of generating Ambrose-esque bounce off a decent length.
THAT version of Angus (sole positive in 1989 Ashes, First three Tests of 1989/90 WI series) was well rated, feared and for good reason.
One of the few English players to be respected by Australians during the 'dark period'. Their main gripe seemed to be with our softness and tendency to roll over, and you couldn't level that at Gus in this lifetime or the next.
The effort he put into every ball and clear knackered-ness he exhibited at the end of a spell was evidence of how much he cared.
If only we'd had ten others like him...
For whatever reason, Ray Illingworth never took a shine to Angus. One bad game and he was out. Just as well he was England's top performer in a mediocre period.
He eventually sussed out how to cramp Brian Lara for room and bore him out. On one occasion, he had Lara caught behind in a county game and a shout went up from the crowd when he returned to the outfield.
"Oi Gus" went up the cry..
"Yeah" he said - expecting some kind of compliment for dismissing Lara.
"I came to watch Lara bat, not you bowl. I'm off" - charming...
When he got Lara again in a Test match in the West Indies, Angus went up screaming with delight. His team-mates wondered why he was so ecstatic having already done the little master several times.
"That's 123 test wickets - one more than Ray Illingworth", was the explanation.
Illingworth was an arse who set English cricket back ten years IMO. The strange downer he had on Angus, their most successful bowler of the decade by any statistical measure, is a massive part of the reason why.
In the interests of balance, it's worh adding he was a mediocre fielder suited only to work on the boundary and a poor batsman who had courage, a decent defence and understood he might get hit (think Tufnell with balls).
However, injury and the Yorkshire control freak (yes I'm a Lancastrian) deprived England of their best bowler and that bowler of a 3-4 hundred wicket test career instead of the relatively paltry 46 test caps he actually got.
177 wickets at 27.32 and a miserly economy rate aren't to be scoffed at - especially in a team that oscillated between average and pathetic.
So - mainly for those from outside England, was Angus bona fide world class, just outside or an average bowler that a few of us (myself included) have over-rated in our heads?
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