Frank Tyson

Frank Holmes Tyson (6 June 1930 – 27 September 2015) was an England international cricketer of the 1950s, who also worked as a schoolmaster, journalist, cricket coach and cricket commentator after emigrating to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press, he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricketKilburn, p. 242.http://www3.sympatico.ca/qhokim/players/tyson.htm. p65-66, Clive Batty, The Ashes Miscellany, Vision Sports Publishing, 2006. and took 76 wickets at an average of 18.56 in 17 Test matches.

In 2007 a panel of judges declared Tyson ''Wisden'' Leading Cricketer in the World for 1955 due to his outstanding tour of Australia in 1954–55 where his 28 wickets (20.82) was instrumental in retaining the Ashes. Tyson coached Victoria to two Sheffield Shield victories and later coached the Sri Lankan national cricket team. . He was a cricket commentator for 26 years on ABC and Channel Nine.

Early life

Tyson's mother was Violet Tyson (born 1892) and his father worked for the Yorkshire Dyeing Company, but died before his son was selected for England. As a boy he played cricket with his elder brother David Tyson, who served in Australia during the war; at school he practised his run-up on the balcony.

He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Middleton, and studied English literature at Hatfield College, Durham University

As a university graduate, Tyson was unusual among professional cricketers in the 1950s. He was a qualified schoolmaster and used to read the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf on tour. Instead of sledging batsmen he quoted Wordsworth: "For still, the more he works, the more/Do his weak ankles swell". He completed his National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals in 1952 as a Keyboard Operator and Cypher. Sportsmen were generally retained on headquarters staff and he played cricket for his platoon, squadron, regiment, area command and the Army. He served at the Headquarters Squadron 4 Training Regiment where he controlled the movements of men transferring in and out of Catterick, but not very well. He abhorred guns and when he took his rifle training he made sure that he always missed the target. In 1952–53 he worked felling trees, which John Snow regarded as an excellent exercise for developing the muscles of a fast bowler and attended Alf Gover's East Hill Indoor School for cricketers. In 1954–55 Gover covered the Ashes tour as a journalist and advised Tyson to use the shorter run-up from his league cricket days, which proved to be a turning point in the series.

Early cricket career 1952–54

Before he became a professional cricketer Tyson played for Middleton in the Central Lancashire League, Knypersley in the North Staffordshire League, Durham University and the Army. Although invited for trials by Lancashire at Old Trafford he was turned down 'because he dipped at the knee', so he qualified for Northamptonshire in 1952 through residence. Tyson made his first-class debut against the Indian tourists in 1952, after his first ball the slips moved back an extra five yards and his first wicket was that of the Test batsman Pankaj Roy for a duck.Willis & Murphy, p. 89. Tyson's second first-class match was against the Australians in 1953. Richie Benaud was told that the unknown Tyson was a bowler fresh out of Durham University who would give them no trouble. They began to revise this estimation when they saw the wicket-keeper take position halfway to the boundary and young Tyson walked over to the sightscreen to begin his run up. The first ball ricocheted off the edge of Colin McDonald's bat to the boundary, the second trapped him lbw before he could play a stroke, the third was a bouncer that flew past Graeme Hole's nose and the fourth was a yorker that clean bowled Hole and sent his stumps cartwheeling over the wicket-keeper's head. In 1954 at Old Trafford Tyson hit the sightscreen with the ball after it bounced once on the pitch. He is one of only four bowlers to have achieved this feat in the history of the game, the others being Charles Kortright, Roy Gilchrist and Jeff Thomson. and he was given his county cap in the same year, his first full first-class season. Tyson reckoned that he received his Test call up when ex-England captains Gubby Allen and Norman Yardley saw him hospitalise Bill Edrich at Lords. Edrich, a noted hooker of fast bowling, mistimed his stroke due to the speed of the ball and his cheek bone was broken. The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) were thereby convinced of the speed and hostility of Tyson's bowling and decided to take him to Australia. He was selected to play for England against Pakistan at the Oval in 1954, taking 4–35 and 1–22 and making 3 runs in each innings batting at number eight, but Pakistan won the match by 24 runs thanks to the bowling of Fazal Mahmood. Although he batted at number eleven in league cricket "The Middleton groundsman was a fatalist. He used to start up the roller to refurbish the wicket when I went in to bat". Tyson worked on his batting and in 1954 "was building up a reputation as an all-rounder, scoring consistently with the bat", and he batted at number seven for England. However, this did not develop as much as expected and he reverted to being a lower-order batsman.

Tour of Australia and New Zealand 1954–55

Test Match Special commentary on the 1954–55 Ashes Series
'

First Test vs Australia at Brisbane

Tyson was chosen for the MCC tour of Australia in 1954–55, seen as a replacement for Fred Trueman who was controversially left behind. Freed of rationing Tyson increased his weight from to within a month of leaving the UK. Hutton won the toss, put Australia in to bat and watched England drop 14 catches as Australia made 601/8 declared. Tyson was hit for 1/160 off 29 eight ball overs and England lost by an innings and 154 runs. Even so, Tyson hit Arthur Morris and Neil Harvey repeatedly with the ball and they were badly bruised. More to the point he bounced Ray Lindwall after the Australian all-rounder knocked several boundaries off the fast bowler on his way to 64 not out. Tyson also managed to run out Graeme Hole and made 37 not out in the second innings, which remained his highest Test score.

Second Test vs Australia at Sydney

Taking advice from his old coach Alf Gover, who was in Australia as a journalist, Tyson stopped using his laborious 38-yard run up and returned to a shorter run up used in league cricket with ten short then ten long final strides. With this he took 4/45 in the first innings, described vividly by Margaret Hughes: "Harvey received a beast of a ball from Tyson which spat up at him and splashed off his bat to Cowdrey". Ray Lindwall had bowled Tyson for a duck in the England first innings and was bounced again, so in the second innings the Australian fast bowler took his revenge:

"He let me have a very fast, short-pitched delivery...Instinctively I turned a defensive back on the ball which skidded through and hit me a sickening blow on the back of my head. I sank to the ground and as I slipped in and out of consciousness, I was dimly aware of the players gathering round my prostrate body. Indistinctly I heard my fellow batsman Bill Edrich saying: 'My God, Lindy, you've killed him!'...I was very, very angry with Ray Lindwall. And the whole of the Aussie team knew it...I would return the bouncer with interest!"Frank Tyson, In the Eye of the Typhoon.

Players did not wear protective helmets in the 1950s and he had to be helped off the field with a large bump on his head that was visible from the stands. He was taken to hospital for x-rays, but returned to loud applause only to be bowled by Lindwall for 9. The Australians needed 223 to win, but were afraid that Tyson would send down a barrage of fast, short-pitched bowling, but he was intelligent enough to bowl full-length deliveries that caught them unprepared. While Brian Statham