Jeff Thomson - Frightening pace.
Dennis Hourn | November 29, 2023
Let me tell you about the first time I saw Jeff Thomson bowling in grade cricket. It was a game against Bankstown at Waverley Oval around 1972.
We batted first and of course in those days we only turned up 20 minutes before the start of the game. We won the toss. Elected to bat and thought we would be in for a leisurely day getting over the previous night's festivities.
Lenny Richardson, later to play for NSW and Queensland, was opening the batting and took strike. Ian Gorman was the keeper and Thommo marks his run up. Right to the edge of the southern practice wickets. About 40 metres.
There would have been nearly 100 metres between Thommo at the top of his run up and Gorman, who was planted not far from the northern practice wickets.
We thought. This is bullshit. On Waverley Oval. This bloke is having a lend of us. We had heard rumours about how quick Thommo was, mainly from a David Lord article in the old Sunday Mirror who quoted ex England player Barry Knight who said about Thommo "fastest bowler he had ever faced". But we thought that was just paper talk. How wrong we were and Lordie had nailed it.
First ball. I remember it like yesterday. Thommo bounded in and let fly. It whistled past Len's face and Gorman took it on the rise. It was just a blur. But very intimidating. We all immediately put our papers down and thought this is going to be very interesting.
Which it was.
Thommo was all fired up pushing for state selection at the time. Coming from the Birrell Street end, with the southerly behind him, if he didn't hit 100 mph that day nearly every ball, I'm not here. He absolutely demolished us and took seven wickets.
It is without doubt the fastest bowling in 60 years at Waverley Oval I can ever recall. Next quickest was Malcolm Marshall, semi-final against Randwick 1992 and third Patrick Cummins 2008 second grade playing for Penrith.
But Thommo was really the only bowler I remember at Waverley Oval who you couldn't pick up the ball watching side on. So, in my books by the quickest.
BeaconPoint Captains Circle Clip with Pat Cummins - Champion the individual
I love it that folks from my era keep telling stories about how fast Thommo really was. young people today simply struggle to believe it. By the time accurate testing was devised in the late 1970s, the edge had gone from Thommo's pace following several shoulder injuries firstly in early 1975 & again in late 1976.
Thommo was the real deal. Even with accurate testing he was still one of the fastest but he was quicker than that up to the end of 1974.
I first started following cricket around the 1967/68 season & I've seen none faster. Guys like Shoaib Akhtar & Brett Lee came close, but not close enough.
Before my time Frank Tyson was supposed to be just as quick but unfortunately accurate measuring wasn't available then. Or Harold Harwood before him.
But for me, Thommo was the fastest. Unfortunately, being so frighteningly quick, he never bothered to develop other skills like his mate & fellow partner Dennis Lillee, so consequently when he lost the edge off his pace, he became less effective.
But boy oh boy, what a legend!