Ashes Heroes No 31: Jeff Thomson

Our countdown of the greatest competitors in the history of the Ashes continues into a twentieth week and I'm only four days behind schedule. I'm sure England can wait for me to catch up over the next six months. After Geoff Boycott last week, we look at a man who spent much of the '70s trying to knock the cap off Boycott and many other Englishmen's heads.

Thirty years ago, an Australian television programme got together some of the fastest bowlers of the day and measured their speed and accuracy. You can watch the action here, beginning with Richie Benaud and his typically understated introduction: "Fast bowlers, marvellously controversial aren't they?"

The likes of Dennis Lillee, Michael Holding, Richard Hadlee, Mike Proctor and Imran Khan were all shown up by an Australian quick in his late 20s who was not only the fastest (92mph) but won the award for accuracy, hitting the stumps with five of his eight deliveries. That he wasn't timed at a faster speed was due to the cameras being placed at the batsman's end, rather than measuring the speed of the ball coming out of the hand.

Ask most batsmen in the late 1970s and they would probably have agreed that Jeff Thomson was the fastest they had to face. His unusual action, trotting in at a gentle pace but accelerating in the last few strides and then sending the ball down with a slingshot chest-on action like Lasith Malinga today, uprooted many an off stump and he ended his 12-year Test career with precisely 200 wickets. "I just roll up and go whang" was his modest summary of his bowling style. He used to keep himself in shape by hunting wild pigs.

On the pitch, Thomson was at his most deadly hunting alongside Lillee, whom Wisden called "the fastest pair ever to have coincided in a cricket team", yet he is overshadowed by Lillee in this list because Thomson really only had one truly great Ashes series. Thomson was thrown into Test cricket in 1972 against Pakistan a little early, after only five first-class games. It was not a successful start and he failed to take a wicket in 19 eight-ball overs, which went for 110 runs. He later admitted that he had been bowling with a broken foot and had not wanted to tell the selectors.

Thomson was rested for another 11 months before being picked again against England. This time he was a more developed bowler and his reward was 33 wickets in five matches. If he had not damaged his shoulder playing tennis before the final Test, he may have broken Arthur Mailey's record of 36 Test wickets in an Australian series.

At the Gabba, Thomson took six for 46 to bowl England out and give Australia a 1-0 series lead. Another second-innings five-for came in the next Test, which Australia also won, and in no innings of the series did he fail to take at least two wickets. His speed and accuracy terrified the England bowlers and with the exception of Larwood in 1932-33 and Tyson 20 years later, Thomson is probably the bowler who most threatened the health of batsmen in an Ashes series Down Under. He used to gleefully talk about how hitting the man was more important than the stumps. "I like to see blood on the pitch" was one of his taunts.

The hard wickets of Australia, where he could get the ball to rear up off a good length, suited him. On England's slower tracks, he was less happy although he began the 1975 tour with a match-winning five for 38 at Edgbaston, one of three Australians to take five wickets in an innings of that match (Lillee, 5-15, and Walker, 5-48, being the others). It would be the only five-for he would take on three tours to England.

A shoulder injury when colliding with one of his team-mates going for a catch in 1976 hampered his bowling and in 1977 he was not the express train he had been three years earlier. He nonetheless took 23 wickets in four Tests, but without Lillee alongside him (the moustachioed one had a bad back) Thomson was not able to carry the side and they were beaten heavily by England.

Overlooked for the 1981 Ashes, Thomson had one more golden Ashes series in him in 1982-83, although by this stage he was relegated to first-change behind Carl Rackemann and Geoff Lawson rather than spearheading the innings himself. In the second innings of the second Test at Brisbane he ripped the middle out of the England order, taking five of the first six wickets as England failed to set a testing target. He took 17 wickets in the next four Tests, including five for 50 in the final Test in Sydney, as Australia regained the urn 2-1.

Yet he still regrets a failure with the bat in that series that cost Australia one Test win. The fourth match of the series was a nail-biter, like Edgbaston in 2005, and Thomson played the Kasprowicz role. When he came out to bat at No 11, Australia needed 74 to win the Test. When he was out, caught by a juggling Miller at slip off Botham, they had needed only four.

Thomson and his fans thought that that was probably it for his Test career, but a swansong remained. Two years later, he was selected for his third Ashes tour to England and he played in two of the Tests. But he took only three wickets for 275 runs; the one saving grace was that when he had Graham Gooch caught behind at Edgbaston, he reached 200 Test wickets. For such a fast bowler, it had taken a long time to get there.

Comments

[terry]

So he had one good series and took over a decade to get 200 test wickets? Vastly over-rated bowler. He may have been fast for a year but he did nothing outside of that and so the fawning over him is laughable. I watched him in 85 and he looked like a club bowler as Gooch and Gower smacked him all over the place. Only his own bluster has helped exaggerate his reputation. He was the Devon Malcolm of his day. Fast for a while but a bowler of no skill or talent hence his very modest test record.

[TigerBoy]

In fact, Thomson dismissed Boycott only in the 1st innings of the 3rd test in 1977, for 107. In the second innings Boycott made 80 not out, followed by 191 at Headingley when Pascoe eventually got him out and 39 [max walker] and 25 not out at the Oval.

[The Surgeon]

Interesting but I'd take issue with the description of his action; slingshot certainly but a more side on action you will never see.

[SouthernWaratah]

Seams everyone's been watching the Indian test so I'll have a go here Patrick. That shoulder injury killed his career, Lucky for every batsman in the end. There's legend of a story of him turning up late to Sydney grade cricket and jumping out of his wetsuit to go an bowl.. Love it!

[Bob Letham]

This is a good summary of Thomson's career, with one exception. Thomson rarely encountered Boycott in the 70s and so did not spend it trying to knock his cap off. Boycott did not tour in 74-5 and was not playing Tests in 75, nor did he play in the centenary Test in 77. He played just three times in England in 77 when Thomson played. In 78-9 when Boycott toured Australia Thomson was involved in the Packer World series. In 81 Thomson was not picked to tour. So Boycott's cap, and latterly helmet, remained firmly in place!