Typhoon Tyson and the 54/55 Ashes

Fast bowler Frank put fear into the Australians

Frank Tyson, who has died aged 85, had a short but sweet Test career. He owned the 1954/55 Ashes.

He played only 17 Tests, taking 76 wickets at an average of 18.56, but he will always be remembered for his 28 wickets at 20.82 in that 3-1 series win. ‘The Typhoon’ put the wind up the Australians.

England had lost the first Test at Brisbane by an innings, and in the second, at Sydney, they had conceded a first-innings lead of 72. Tyson had belatedly found his form with four wickets in the first innings, and had emerged as Len Hutton’s key fast bowler. Now, in England’s second innings, just before lunch on day four, Tyson was out for the count. 

“My God, Lindy, you’ve killed him!” said Bill Edrich when he saw Tyson collapse at the opposite end. His batting partner was unconscious, hit on the head by a bouncer from Ray Lindwall. 

“It was overcast and I lost the ball completely out of the sightscreen at the Randwick Road End,” Tyson told me. “I’d bowled quite a few bouncers at Lindwall at Brisbane, so he retaliated in kind. He let me have a very fast, short-pitched delivery. It hit me on the back of the head. I went down like a sack of potatoes. I was in a vague mist, slipping in and out of consciousness. I was aware of the players gathering round my body, and I will always remember Bill’s comment.”

Tyson was helped off the field by his team-mates and taken to hospital for X-rays. Had it been serious, England’s task of retaining the Ashes would have been much harder. The news was positive, however. No permanent injury. Tyson returned, only to be bowled by Lindwall for nine. 

“I was very, very angry with Lindwall,” Tyson wrote. “And the whole of the Aussie team knew it ... I would return the bouncer with interest!”

England set a target of 223 at Sydney, thanks to Peter May’s first century against Australia. Then Tyson simply blew the hosts’ batting away. He took six for 85, giving him match figures of 10 for 130, and exacting revenge over Lindwall by yorking him for eight. England levelled the series, winning with a day to spare. 

“Tyson was the quickest I have ever seen,” Tom Graveney said. “He had a 40mph gale behind him in that Test. When he came on I was standing 50 yards back at slip; I was closer to the fence than the stumps!” 

Tyson had given me his phone number when he visited England during the 2005 Ashes, and I was relieved when it still worked, even though I disturbed his breakfast in early November 2009. He was living in Surfers Paradise, a suburb of Queensland’s Gold Coast, having moved from Melbourne (where he had been a teacher) to enjoy the warmer climate. 

He combined frightening pace with an analytical approach (he even, bizarrely, quoted Shakespeare at batsmen). “There are two ways a fast bowler can succeed in Australia – bowl bloody fast, or do a lot with the ball. We did both!” he said. “The Australians accused us of taking too long to bowl our overs. Our over-rate was certainly not very high – the equivalent of 12 six-ball overs an hour. The thing was, we kept bowling them out! The balance swung our way because we bowled fast ... faster than the Australians.”

After recording match figures of 10 for 130 at Sydney, Tyson took 9 for 95 in the third Test at Melbourne and 6 for 132 at Adelaide (England won both matches).

Injury plagued him for the rest of his career and Fred Trueman became England’s premier strike bowler. But Tyson always had 54/55. How much the success Down Under meant back home was summed up by the calypso singer Lord Kitchener, who released a single about the tour called ‘The Ashes’. The first verse went: 

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