Alec Bedser

[Red]

Watching footage of him, seems a classic bowl a "heavy" ball type of bowler.

Considering other bowlers, who do you think is most like him in terms of action, style and effect?

 

[smash84]

Fazal Mahmood

 

[fredfertang]

I met Sir Alec once - grumpy old bugger, but generous with his time and had a sense of humour

I suggested to him I imagined him as being a bit like Gus Fraser - he said he wasn't as quick as Gus, and compared his pace to Tom Cartwright - didn't have the heart to tell him Cartwright was a bit before my time

Didn't rate many batsmen, but clearly thought Bradman was the hound's testicles

 

[Starfighter]

Maurice Tate - although I reckon he's a bit slower.

 

[Red]

I met Sir Alec once - grumpy old bugger, but generous with his time and had a sense of humour

I suggested to him I imagined him as being a bit like Gus Fraser - he said he wasn't as quick as Gus, and compared his pace to Tom Cartwright - didn't have the heart to tell him Cartwright was a bit before my time

Didn't rate many batsmen, but clearly thought Bradman was the hound's testicles

Any modern bowlers you’d compare to him Fred?

 

[the big bambino]

Philander.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Definitely Fazal. The little footage there's available of him, he looks a strikingly similar bowler.

 

[watson]

Bedser and Barnes are the only bowlers I can think of who bowled an ‘inswinging leg-break’ at medium pace. A proper leg-break spun from the front-of-the-hand as it were.

O’Reilly and Chandra bowled their leg-breaks at pace but neither got that late dip into the pads achieved by Bedser and Barnes.

So Bedser and Barnes because their wicket taking ball were carbon copies.

 

[the big bambino]

Also Alderman. If you want comparison with in dipping then breakaway bowlers that is fairly similar to Alderman's bowling in 1981.

 

[fredfertang]

Any modern bowlers you’d compare to him Fred?

Can't think of any tbh - the thing about Bedser was he had that pretty gentle run up with most of his pace coming in his delivery stride something which, as he told me several times, was because he was bowling over 1,000 overs a season - Fraser for example had a much more bustling approach but then, as Sir Alec again told me, with feeling, he only had to bowl a few hundred (with a gruff "if that" added on at the end) over a summer

 

[S.Kennedy]

The Bedser Twins, Alec and Eric, both part of Surridge and May's great Surrey side of the 1950s. Eric couldn't get into an England with Laker and Lock.

Later in life Alec had a controversial career on the Selectors, leaving out D'Oliveira in 1968 and to threatening Botham with the chop in 1981 - Botham hasn't a kind word to say about him.

 

[Engle]

My memories of Alec Bedser footage can be summarized in 1 word - Control. He was completely in control of his run-up, delivery and line/length. Not a single loose ball. This be the reason that distinguishes fast bowlers from their medium-fast cousins.
And the batsmen ? They reciprocated with nothing but complete respect to a bowler who knew what he was doing.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The Bedser Twins, Alec and Eric, both part of Surridge and May's great Surrey side of the 1950s. Eric couldn't get into an England with Laker and Lock.

Later in life Alec had a controversial career on the Selectors, leaving out D'Oliveira in 1968 and to threatening Botham with the chop in 1981 - Botham hasn't a kind word to say about him.

Sir Alec was a borderline fascist, sadly. A member of the very right wing Freedom Association, founded by Norris & Ross McWhirter, which is very anti statist, anti EU, pro libertarian but ironically not so fond of worker's rights or gay marriage.

Which, for a confirmed bachelor like Sir Alec, might've produced some inner conflict that explains the grumpiness.

 

[S.Kennedy]

Sir Alec was a borderline fascist, sadly. A member of the very right wing Freedom Association, founded by Norris & Ross McWhirter, which is very anti statist, anti EU, pro libertarian but ironically not so fond of worker's rights or gay marriage.

Which, for a confirmed bachelor like Sir Alec, might've produced some inner conflict that explains the grumpiness.

Alec Bedser actually fought against fascism during the second world war. I fail to see what the freedom association's campaigning against gay marriage has to do with his bachelordom.