Allow me to regale you all with a story related to who I thought was the greatest 'fast' bowler ever, Tertius Bosch.
He played but one Test for South Africa and also played a season of cricket for a South Aussie district club, which is where I met him. We played for the same club (I was 16 at the time) and in a pre-season match where the A-grade squad played an inter-club match against members who were trying to make it into the squad (I was in this team), we clashed heads.
I knew Tertius was susceptible to the short ones and so in the first innings, I let him have it. Hoping to impress, I bowled as fast as I could and bounced the crapola out of him. Eventually I got him caught as he backed away to square leg and was quite proud of myself having got a Test player out.
I came out to bat in my team's innings and I heard him as I walked out say to the opposition's captain, "Give me the *@#%@ ball!".
Next thing, there's Tertius at the top of his run charging in and bowling at a phenominal pace(he was clocked at 150km/h+ at one stage in his career) and HOSTILE. Most balls I wore on the ribs and shoulders with one of them glancing my head on the way to the boundary. It was easily the quickest and nastiest bowling I'd ever faced. Needless to say, eventually he bowled me an unplayable yorker which I was nowhere near and I staggered off the field.
I entered the changeroom and someone (can't remember who) remarked to me, "Christ! That's the nastiest bowling I've ever seen." I remember replying or nodding but just as I was about to say something, I collapsed and blacked out. I was apparently rushed to hospital where doctors discovered that I had severe bruising and a couple of crcked ribs but what had caused me to black out was the hit in the solar plexus which cut off some of the oxygen flow to my brain (I couldn't breathe properly) and that was all she wrote.
I was in hospital for a couple of nights and on the second night, Tertius came to visit. He apologised but told me it was my own damn fault for bouncing him
For the next few hours we just talked cricket and other stuff and I found him to be an exceedingly nice guy. Nonetheless, he never took it easy on me at training, though!
So it was with great sadness I heard of his death in 2000. Him and I got to know each other quite well and it affected me quite deeply.
So here's to the greatest 'fast' bowler of all time, in my opinion anyway.
[Edited on 7/28/02 by Top_Cat]
[Edited on 7/28/02 by Top_Cat]
