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Past players discussions- Bruce Reid

Red

The normal awards that everyone else has
Recently I was watching a DVD called "Australia's Wonder Years" and early in the DVD Bruce Reid caught my eye. What a shame he was so injury prone, because Reid could have been a legitimate ATG. And this might sound a bit hyperbolic, but I believe he could have been the greatest of all time, or very close to it.

Reid was a tall left arm paceman for Australia in the 80s and early 90s. He wasn't express pace, but had the ability to hurry a batsman on their shots. When he got it right, his inswing to right handers was beautiful, slipping the ball through the gate between bat and pad often. And the one that went away bought Tubby, MWaugh and Border into play in the slips. For a man so injury prone, he had an easy action that was aesthetically pleasing. Reid might be remembered for a couple of blips on his radar, being unable to score in an ODI once (he was a legit bunny tbf) and for Allan Lamb taking him apart in another ODI, but this is a shame. Better to remember him as an unfortunately injury prone potential ATG. And as the man who literally snapped in half on the Twelfth Man tapes. Bruce Reid- a great bowler who couldn't quite reach his peak consistently.

 

Hurricane

Hall of Fame Member
I remember him well. Quality bowler. And a quality cricketer because he wasn't a sledger you will note in your video there weren't too many send offs.

Richard Hadlee during his breif stint as a commentator seemed to "get" Bruce Reid and in fact all fast bowlers for that matter.

Bruce got smashed for a six by the Kiwi Richard Reid. It was a batsman's shot and there wasn't much wrong with the ball as far as I could see. But Richard felt that Reid needed to respond.
In the next match of the ODI series he spoke at length at how Bruce would be feeling a bit hurt by his previous performance. Bruce responded by bowling his opening 5 overs for 11 runs. Richard Hadlee simply said "That is better from Reid". **** Hadlee had high standards for an international bowler to live up to and apparently Bruce Reid had the same standards.

I remember that we had a good batting line up in the 1980s, Your top line bowlers kept us under pressure, McDermott, Reid, Alderman, and to an extent Merv. Lesser bowlers we comfortably milked around eg. Whitney, and Rackermann. Dodemaide etc...but when Reid or Craig M came on to bowl it was basically just a matter of trying to survive the over.

Very intelligent bowler. Very good competitor and came across most importantly in my book as a normal and decent bloke which I can't say for Merv Hughes.
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Another very good bowler severely affected by injuries. 113 wickets in 27 matches (the same as Ryan Harris), @ 24.63.
I wasn't around to see him play but I've always thought his action looked a trifle unstable, with his shoulders moving around a lot. Obviously not too good on one's back, especially considering he was a very skinny 6'8". Also a wonderfully incompetent batsman, with an ave of 4.65 and an HS of 13! They don't make them like that any more.
Also took an ODI hat trick (the 2nd) against NZ in 1986.
 

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