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Historical footage: Impressions of some greats

watson

Banned
IIRC he finished in the top two or three behind Thommo on hat world's fastest bowler comp around 77-78 as well.
The top 3 in that 1979 comp were;

1. Jeff Thomson - 147.9
2. Michael Holding - 141.3
3. Imran Khan - 139.7

Those speeds don't seem great but in those days they measured the ball's speed at the batsman's wicket. These days it's measured a metre or two from of the bowler's hand.

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watson

Banned
In this video Imran and Thommo discuss their speed trial. No one knows what they are actually talking about but it's all good fun and Imran's first-up story about Holding is great.

Incidently, if you add 10% as Thommo suggests in the video to account for loss of speed over 20 yards or so, then Thommo's fastest delivery that day in modern terms is 162.7kph.

 
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Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
I reckon early Thommo was a bit quicker than Lee, Shoaib and Tait in recent times. Especially factoring in how it was measured.

Richie Benaud maintained Tyson was the quickest he saw.
 

the big bambino

International Captain
I can't play the link in Watson's thread. Can anyone tell me if the bowlers in that competition bowled full tosses and yorkers in the main?
 

Burgey

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Some more than others. Thommo bowled a fair few yorkers. There was a $1,000 prize for the most accurate, measured by how many times they hit the stumps. Thommo won that too.
 

the big bambino

International Captain
I remember there was some ironical humour when he won that too. That accuracy prize may have encouraged them to bowl fuller than they would have normally. Also if the speeds were measured at the batting wicket they would have had a higher recording than a ball bouncing off a length I would assume. If that's the case then Thommo's add on an extra 10% might be a little high.

I also recall Sarf and Hadlee were in that contest and from memory they were 75 and 79mph, though it was too long ago to completely rely on memory. Adjust for the modern measure they are probably btwn 80 and 85mph, with Hadlee at the top end of the range.
 

Burgey

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Silentstriker contacted Frank Pike who conducted the experiment some time ago to discuss how they did the experiment and how they measured it. I'll see if I can dig the posts up

Thommo was always underrated re his smarts. He had a pretty devastating yorker. As Fertang noted, that competition was after his shoulder injury so you can safely assume he was a fair bit quicker before it. I did hear it said he had to borrow a pair of Dunlop Volleys to bowl in that day because he forgot his boots, but I'm not sure how true that is.

Bloke was seriously fast though, and made the ball sort of leap off the pitch, almost like it gripped then launched itself at you. I don't think I'd have much fancied facing him.

This article has been posted before, but it's a great read about Thomson bowling in grade cricket in Sydney in 1974.

Wisden - Jeff Thomson is annoyed
 
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watson

Banned
In this 2 hour retrospective Richie Benaud looks back at some Test match and World Cup highlights from the 1970s.

 

GotSpin

Hall of Fame Member
Silentstriker contacted Frank Pike who conducted the experiment some time ago to discuss how they did the experiment and how they measured it. I'll see if I can dig the posts up

Thommo was always underrated re his smarts. He had a pretty devastating yorker. As Fertang noted, that competition was after his shoulder injury so you can safely assume he was a fair bit quicker before it. I did hear it said he had to borrow a pair of Dunlop Volleys to bowl in that day because he forgot his boots, but I'm not sure how true that is.

Bloke was seriously fast though, and made the ball sort of leap off the pitch, almost like it gripped then launched itself at you. I don't think I'd have much fancied facing him.

This article has been posted before, but it's a great read about Thomson bowling in grade cricket in Sydney in 1974.

Wisden - Jeff Thomson is annoyed
Awesome article

I always really enjoy any article about Thomson
 

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