HOW GOOD WAS TRUMPER
Shyam Prasad Talluri
the game. Some even rate Trumper ahead of Sir Don Bradman. I really
don't know much of Trumper. May be some of our Australian freinds
can write more about him. From what I heard Trumper was a genious
on a bad wicket and he was by far supreame in strokeplay than even
the great Sir Don. I may be wrong but that was what I heard. I
would like to know more about Victor Trumper if some body could
post some thing about this great Australian.
Shyam P Talluri.
Srikant Sridevan
In article <1m45ur$o...@aurora.engr.LaTech.edu>, s...@engr.LaTech.edu
(Shyam Prasad Talluri) writes:
This is an interesting anecdote which I have heard about Trumper.
Apparently, he often used to make a mockery of the fields opposing
captains set for him. He'd initially hit a boundary in one of the vacant
places in the field and when the opposing captain moved to block that
gap in the field, he'd hit a boundary through the exact location, the
fielder had been moved from! Some genius surely.
Srikant
sunny
already scored a hundred when lunch was taken. As he was walking towards the pavilion, one of the kids in the crowd asked him, if he would mind playing with his bat. Trumper promptly gave his bat to the kid and took his. People at that point were sure that Trumper had just done that to make the kid happy. But after lunch Trumper came out with the kids bat.
He proceeded to hammer the Brits all over the field. But as his innings progressed the bat started to chip away & when he was eventually out at 290 odd, the bat was little wider than a stump. The English captain, who had watched all this, later quipped - " Had he broken what was left of the bat, he could have easily uprooted one of the stumps & continued to our leather hunt."
- Sunny
Neeran M. Karnik
In response to Shyam's request:- here's what Barclay's has on Trumper
under the "Biographies" section. This was written by H.S.Altham, a good
(but never great) player himself, and later, an administrator and selector
for England, and a cricket historian.
TRUMPER, Victor Thomas (1877-1915)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The name Trumper has still for all who saw him bat a magic of
its own. He first gained fame in his own country by his
initial hundred, 292* for NSW v Tasmania in 1898-99, and in
England the following summer by his 135* at Lord's in only his
2nd Test match; but it was in 1902 that he established himself
beyond question as among the very first of contemporary batsmen
when, in a deplorably wet summer, he made 2570 runs and 11
hundreds.
The greatest of these was in the 1st innings of the historic
Test match at Manchester which Australia eventually won by 3
runs: the wicket was soft with rain, and with the sunday coming
out, a formidable English attack had been enjoined by their
captain `Keep Victor quiet till the ball really starts
turning'; at lunch the Australian score was 173-1 and Trumper
was out for 104. Eighteen months later in Australia he made
185* in the first Test against P.F.Warner's side, and in the
Second, on an `impossible' Melbourne wicket, scored 74
superlative runs out of a total of 122. Seven yrs later, he
dominated the series against the S.African visitors, averaging
94 with a total of 661 runs, and, touring NZ in the winter of
1913 just before he was struck down by his fatal illness, he
scored 1246 in 15 innings, including a contribution of 293 made
in 3 hours in a partnership of 433 for the 8th wicket with
Arthur Sims.
But the measure of Trumper's genius is not to be found in any
figures: it was essentially qualitative rather than
quantitative, revealed in terms of spontaneous art rather than
an acquired technique. He had the lissome and co-ordinated body
of a natural athlete; like all great batsmen, he seemed to
sight the ball almost as soon as it left the bowler's hand, and
he moved into his strokes with effortless and perfectly
balanced ease. There was no limit to their range, or flaw in
their fluency or timing: the better the bowling, the more
difficult the wicket, the more likely was his genius to rise to
the challenge. To it and the man behind it, no better tribute
could be paid than Sir Pelham Warner's words: `He was as modest
as he was magnificent: batting seemed to be just part of
himself'.
Career Figures:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First-class:-
Batting: 401 inn, 21 n.o., 16939 runs, 300* high, 44.57 avg, 42 hundreds
Bowling: 64 wkts. at 31.73
Catches: 172
Tests:-
Batting: 89 inn, 8 n.o., 3163 runs, 214* high, 39.04 avg, 8 hundreds
Bowling: 8 wkts at 39.62
Catches: 31
> Shyam P Talluri.
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
| Neeran M. Karnik | #2 fan of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar on r.s.c. :-> |
| Dept. of CompSci.| -------------------------------------------------|
| U of Minnesota | VeeKayFan khush hua! :-> |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shyam Prasad Talluri
: In response to Shyam's request:- here's what Barclay's has on Trumper
: under the "Biographies" section. This was written by H.S.Altham, a good
: (but never great) player himself, and later, an administrator and selector
: for England, and a cricket historian.
Hi Karnik,
Thanks for the excellent material about Trumper. He was really
a great BAD wicket player. Wasn't he ?
Shyam P Talluri.
Flashman
>
Victor Trumper was regarded as the finest Australian batsman until the
career of Don Bradman, and even then he was regarded as Bradman's equal.
His greatest achievement was the Australian Ashes tour of 1902 when he
scored 2500+ runs in the wettest summer for 50 years. He also scored ten
centuries, his highest score though was only 128 as he thought his job
was done when reached 100. His strokeplay on a wet or 'sticky' wicket was
unprecedented, a fact displayed in the third test of the series when he
made 103* before lunch on a wet pitch that experts said would give a top
score of only 150. He and Reggie Duff made a century opening partnership
in only 57 minutes, still the fastest opening partnership in Ashes history.
He was cursed however with a frail physique and was often too tired to walk
after a big innings. In his first Ashes tour of 1899, he was unavailable
for selection for two weeks after he had scored 300 in 310 minutes against
Sussex. Thereafter, he could usually only manage one big test innings a
series.
His worth was demonstrated during the 1902 series when captain Joe Darling
would ask before the bus left for each match, "Is Vic aboard?". No one
else was needed to win the match apparently. Charlie Macartney described
Trumper as having four shots for every type of delivery imaginable, a fact
demonstrated when he hit four consectutive deliveries of George Griffen
,a noted Australian accuracy bowler, to four different spots around the ground
off four identical balls in a 1900 Shield match.
The time from 1899 to 1912 was described as a golden cricket era with
Victor Trumper the golden figurehead of this era.
_|\___________________________________
Flashman. |___________________________________| \
He who hunts The Fox. \_|_|_|_|_|_/-----------\_l_|===\
awi...@neumann.une.oz.au \====\
\___|
Spaceman Spiff
>
>Victor Trumper was regarded as the finest Australian batsman until the
>career of Don Bradman, and even then he was regarded as Bradman's equal.
>His greatest achievement was the Australian Ashes tour of 1902 when he
>scored 2500+ runs in the wettest summer for 50 years. He also scored ten
>centuries, his highest score though was only 128 as he thought his job
>was done when reached 100.
bzzt! wrong answer. his test best was 214* vs SA. he also had a 185* and a 166
vs england and a 159 vs SA.
> _|\___________________________________
> Flashman. |___________________________________| \
> He who hunts The Fox. \_|_|_|_|_|_/-----------\_l_|===\
> awi...@neumann.une.oz.au \====\
> \___|
well, i never! another fan of flashy! i've got the complete set.
Stay cool,
Spaceman Spiff
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