Memories of Fred Titmus and his lost toes

Sheryl-Ann, well known to so many in Linbro Park, and who worked here for a decade, mentioned the death of Fred Titmus to her husband, Tony, whose brother was the late Tiger Lance. Tony met Fred at Bloemfontein CBC where he was coaching, and pointed out to her that Titmus took many hundreds of wickets with just a right big toe. Geoff Boycott was there:

ST: Our next question comes from Greg in the UK and it concerns your former England team-mate who also played for Middlesex, the allrounder Fred Titmus who passed away recently. Greg asks: What are some of your memories of playing with Titmus, and how would you remember him as a cricketer?

GB: A very good competitor. He didn't say a lot but he was a very astute and smart bowler. He was a flight bowler more than anything - didn't push it through. He varied his flight, he spun it. There was no doosra in those days but he had more or less an arm ball that just drifted away. He also obviously had the straight-on topspinner. He was also a lower-order batsman who had a good defence, and he was a good square-cutter. That's sensible when you're mainly a bowler who can bat a bit and don't have all the shots like a batsman. He was smart with his batting and could get occasional runs.

Most people wouldn't know that he was my first opening partner in Test cricket. We were playing in Nottingham in 1964, the first Test against Australia. I was picked to open with John Edrich. Edrich stood on the ball during fielding practice in the afternoon, and overnight his foot had swollen up. Those days - I know it seems laughable today - we only had 12 players. We usually had an extra bowler. So we had to play all our bowlers because Edrich couldn't play, and Titmus had to open with me.

I also remember an incident in 1968. We had a few days off in Barbados during the England tour of West Indies. He was swimming in the sea just off the beach. If any of you has been in the water, you'd know that when you lift yourself up the side of the boat, your feet go underneath as you pull yourself up. When he got in the boat, he saw there was blood everywhere. His toes were hanging out. His foot had caught the boat's propeller, which sliced his toes. Fortunately his big toe was still there.

Whatever the surgeons did to him, he returned to play later on because the big toe apparently is the most important digit on the foot for balance. He could run again, but with a slight limp, and he played on and was still a very fine bowler. A good bloke to play with, a good professional.