Fred Titmus, born November 24, 1932, was the first choice off-spinner of England in the 1960s and a batsman good enough to open the innings for the country when the situation demanded. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at the life and career of the man who survived an accident which cost him four toes.
The boating accident
West Indies 1967-68.
The first two Tests had ended in a draw, the second one witnessing an ugly riot on the fourth day.
Vice-captain Fred Titmus had not really set the islands on fire, but had bowled his usual tight off-breaks and, as always, had proved a difficult man to dislodge in the lower order.
The England team headed to Barbados for the third Test and checked into the Sandy Lane Hotel. The sun, beach and the blue sea were enticing. Captain Colin Cowdrey’s wife Penny took the wheel of a motorboat and went into the water. A few members of the team, Titmus included, waded into the water, making for the craft. A Guardian newspaperman observed that they were “cavorting like dolphins.”
On reaching the idling motorboat, the swimmers held on to the sides and chatted with each other. Unknown to them, however, the propeller was underneath the hull and not at the back of the boat. Titmus, who was holding on to the side, tried to haul himself on board. And as he did so, his leg slipped under the boat and there was a bang.
His first reaction was that his feet were numb. He called out, “Hold on a minute, I think I’ve cut my foot.” And as he lifted his leg out of the water, he saw that he had done a bit more than that. Two toes had been sliced clean by the propeller and two others were hanging on by the skin.
Skipper Cowdrey and teammate Robin Hobbs helped him to the shore and a towel was wrapped around his foot. Denis Compton, on the tour as a journalist, and Brian Johnston, the broadcaster, carried him to a car in a beach chair. They were on the verge of driving off to Bridgetown when a young boy on the beach informed them that there was a small hospital nearby, run by a ‘famous doctor’.
The said destination was the St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Hospital about four miles away. The physician in question was Dr Homer Rogers, a Canadian surgeon specialising in ice hockey injuries. The first words he uttered to an obviously distressed Titmus had a great effect on the off-spinner’s career. “Oh, we’ll soon have that sorted out. I have seen dozens of hockey players return to action after losing toes.”
The two remaining damaged toes were amputated, and the skin wrapped over the foot. Rogers said that Titmus was lucky; the propeller had only grazed his big toe and not cut it. So, his balance would not be affected. Rogers assured that it would be just a few weeks, not even months, before Titmus could play again.
So, the next day, when a reporter asked him how he felt after the accident, Titmus answered, “Fine … except a lot lighter.” His main concern was that the nuns who acted as nurses in the hospital did not allow him to smoke his pipe.
According to Titmus, his injury was put in perspective early on as he waited for Rogers in the hospital. “There was a little old lady sitting in a chair and she asked me if I was the young man who had lost some toes. ‘What a shame,’ she said, ‘what a pity.’ But when I looked at her I realised she had no legs. So there was no chance of feeling sorry for myself.”
Titmus was soon walking, within four days of the accident. He also discovered that he could run without pain. Veteran left-arm spinner Tony Lock was rushed in as his replacement, as Titmus waited in the Caribbean for a fortnight. The fact that Penny Cowdrey had been at the wheel of the boat was kept carefully under wraps. “Although she was completely innocent, her husband was very concerned her name was kept out of the papers. After all, ‘England skipper’s wife chops off his deputy’s toes’ would have been a better story!” Titmus recalled later.
The returns
Eight weeks after the amputation, Titmus was in Munchengladbach, Germany, turning out against a British Army XI. Before turning out for Middlesex, he had to test his fitness. He passed in flying colours, scoring 63 and taking six wickets for 44. Initially he wore a rubber left boot so there would be less grip on the foot he swivelled on. After a few matches he realised it was not needed and went back to conventional footwear.
In the summer that followed, Titmus played 30 matches for Middlesex, picking up 111 wickets at 19.37. He also scored 924 runs at 25.35 with five half centuries — in fact he headed the batting averages for his county. John Woodcock observed in the Times, ”As I watched him carried from the sea I saw little chance of him playing again. [His return is] a remarkable story of good doctoring, good luck and irrepressible spirit.”
Titmus subsequently received £98 as compensation from the insurance company covering the English cricketers on the tour. He was less than impressed. “[It] did not exactly measure up to my loss … £25 a toe did not seem exactly generous.”
However, the Test spot seemed to have gone for good. His bowling remained a redoubtable force, but Ray Illingworth sealed his place as off-spinner and captain of England. Titmus also saw his batting decline after the accident. He made just five more fifties in his career, along with a surprise century against Warwickshire in 1976. But one of those fifties was another remarkable tale in the life of this remarkable survivor.
Titmus was recalled to play his next Test after almost seven years, on the fastest wicket in the world with Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson battering the English batsmen to submission at Perth. They had already been routed in the first Test and the former captain of Titmus, the 41-year-old Colin Cowdrey, had been coaxed out of retirement to fly down and face the rampant bloodthirsty Australian bowlers at the top of the English batting order. And at number eight, there was 42-year-old Titmus himself, standing solid against the extreme pace.
In the first innings, Titmus batted one and a half hours for 10, and followed it up by bowling 28 tidy eight-ball overs to take two for 84. In the second innings, he came in at 156 for six, innings defeat staring at England. And he was one of the few who adhered to the sound principles of getting his body behind the line of the thunderbolts dished by Lillee and Thomson. He top scored with a courageous 61, ensuring that Australia would have to bat again.
He played in three more Tests, and got just five more wickets. But, as a batsman, even in his last innings at Adelaide, he made the bowlers fight for his wicket. He added 68 with Knott, helping the gutsy wicketkeeper get to his well-deserved century, and eventually falling for a 116-ball 20. Till his final innings in Test, he remained a fighter to the core.
Spanning nine Prime Ministers
It is oft repeated that Fred Titmus began his First-Class career when Clement Attlee was in office and ended it during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. Thus, his career outlasted seven other Prime Ministers in between. It started at the age of 16, and ended in a surprise game on special request of Mike Brearley a few months from his 50th birthday.
Titmus was born in Somers Town, St Pancras, the son of a railwayman. At school he was a talented footballer and it is said that he took up cricket only after discovering how his Arsenal idol Denis Compton spent his summers.
Titmus played at junior level for Chelsea and Watford, but showed early promise in cricket as well, making it to his school’s first XI by the age of 13. Working in a solicitor’s office at the age of 16, he stayed within a stone’s throw of the Mecca of cricket. So, he wrote to Lord’s asking for a trial. It took 12 balls for him to be accepted as a member of the MCC groundstaff.
In June 1949, he was supposed to sell scorecards at the Test against New Zealand when Middlesex found themselves shorn of five regulars on international duty. Titmus was virtually pushed into making his debut against Somerset at Bath at the age of 16 years and 213 days, a record until Steven Finn broke it in 2005. His whites were in the wash, and so he had to turn up in borrowed kit. He did not do much in the game, but it was a testimony to the potential of the youngster.
He appeared more regularly the following summer. And that same year the well-known incident, so often repeated in cricketing circles, occurred. Playing for the first time at Lord’s for MCC against Surrey in 1950, it was discovered that Titmus was a professional and not an amateur. Hence, an announcement followed on the public address system, “For F. J. Titmus, read Titmus, F. J.” Titmus later said that such changes were common: “That itself was progress from the old days, when amateurs were denoted by ‘Mister’ and we were generally referred to simply by our surname.” He took 55 wickets in the season, including seven for 34 against the Minor Counties.
First taste of Test cricket
After National Service in the Royal Air Force (RAF), Titmus returned to Middlesex in 1953 and enjoyed the first of his 16 100-wicket seasons.
During a spectacular 1955, he captured 191 wickets at 16.31 and also scored 1235 runs. This was his first double, and he also hit 105 against Hampshire, his first century. These performances resulted in his first Test call up against South Africa at Lord’s. But one for 50 on debut, followed by none for 51 at Old Trafford and a total of 39 runs in four innings proved inadequate to hold on to his place.
With Jim Laker in the equation, an off-spinner would always struggle to get in the England side of the 1950s. From 1956 to 1962, Titmus performed a double each year except 1958. But, Laker remained the off-spinner for England and it would be only after his retirement that Titmus would play Test cricket again.
Paradoxically, however, it was Laker’s advice which made Titmus a much improved bowler. Having played in his formative years as a seamer, Titmus bowled with a long final stride. Laker explained, “A shorter stride would help him pivot more pronouncedly, give him better flight and consequently more variations.” Titmus followed the instructions and the results showed almost immediately.
In 1956, wicketkeeper John Murray took his first catch off the bowling of Fred Titmus. Soon, they appeared together regularly on the scoreboard beside the names of unfortunate batsmen, and also became inseparable off the field. Murray became the trusted confidante, friend and advisor. Soon, Peter Parfitt would establish himself in the Middlesex side to stand in slips and hold catch after catch off his bowling.
The second Test stint
When Laker left the scene, there was a group of talented off-spinners earmarked as probable successors. David Allen, John Mortimore and Ray Illingworth vied for the vacated slot along with Titmus. But Laker backed the Middlesex man. “All were fine practitioners, but I always believed Fred Titmus had the edge,” the legend said.
Titmus returned to Test cricket with two matches against Pakistan in the summer of 1962. The season’s haul of 136 wickets ensured a trip to Australia. And at Sydney, he exploited a cross-wind to take seven for 79 in the third Test. When the sides returned to the ground for the fifth Test match, Titmus bagged five for 103. He also batted steadily throughout, with a highest of 59 not out at Adelaide. With 21 wickets at 29.33 and 182 runs at 36.50, he was one of the major successes of the tour. E. M. Wellings called him “the most important member of the team”.
The following winter, he travelled to India and took 27 Test wickets, including nine at Madras. He also scored 84 not out at Bombay, which would remain his highest Test score.
In the winter of 1964-65, Titmus and Allen bowled England to victory at Durban, thus sealing the series against South Africa. And the following summer, against New Zealand at Headingley, he took four wickets without conceding a run in his 21st over. The 1965 summer also saw him captaining Middlesex, the first professional to do so on a full-time basis.
In his second Ashes tour of 1965-66, he tasted success at Sydney once again, sharing eight wickets with Allen and bowling England to a win. According to Allen, “He always wanted to bowl with the wind. But then he would turn to me and complain about how it hurt his eyes when he walked back to the start of his run-up.”
The final days
After his accident, Titmus continued to be a key performer for Middlesex. Although he found the off-spinner a difficult man to manage, skipper Mike Brearley vouched that he was the key bowler of the side. Titmus continued to be a major spinner of England, and received the surprise call up for his third Australian tour in 1974-75. At the end of the tour, his Test career ended with 153 wickets at 32.22 and 1449 runs at 22.29.
Titmus played his final full season in 1976, and that year the skills of young John Emburey were often preferred to his experience. However, Titmus did play a key part in the final charge that earned Middlesex their first outright Championship since 1947.
After leaving Middlesex, Titmus became the coach of Surrey and also played a solitary match for them in 1978.The pressures of the job, however, did not quite agree with him and he quit after two years. After that he ran a post office in Hertfordshire and made brief returns for Middlesex in 1979 and 1980.
Yet, his final appearance was unplanned. On the morning of the county’s last game of the 1982 season, against Surrey, Brearley discovered that the pitch at Lord’s was bare, loose and dry. Middlesex had the services of Edmonds and Emburey, but Brearley thought he could do with a third spinner. Fortune favoured him, and the 49-year old Titmus dropped in for a cup of tea just before the start of the game.
“Fred, just the man,” Brearley exclaimed on seeing him. “We could do with a third spinner.”
Boots were found for him and Titmus played. On the last afternoon, with time running out, Edmonds hobbled off with a bad back. Titmus captured three vital wickets, and Surrey were bowled out for 102 while chasing 160.
Thus, three months from his 50th birthday, Titmus made his 792nd and final First-Class appearance. He ended with 2830 wickets at 22.37 along with 21588 runs at 23.11. He was the fourth man after W.G. Grace, Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst to take 2,500 wickets and make 20,000 runs in First-Class cricket.
The bowler and the man
Titmus was a good enough batsman to open against Australia when the situation demanded, but his batting was always the secondary skill, made useful through application, pluck and sound basics. It was as an off-spinner that he made his reputation and his claims to the England side.
He loved bowling long spells, cutting off scoring opportunities and patiently waiting for the batsman to make mistakes. At Lord’s he was a familiar sight, hitching up his trousers, blowing into his right hand, and jogging a couple of paces from the Pavilion End with Murray behind the stumps and Parfitt at slip.
Due to his seam bowling background, he never quite managed huge purchase from the wicket, but remained a master of drift and flight. One particular delivery, bowled from the index finger, curled in from outside the leg stump and trapped many a hapless batsman in front. It was supposed to be his swinger. He kept bowling wicket to wicket, and his huge natural drift convinced Clive Lloyd to adapt the approach of playing him as a conventional outswing bowler. He could also on occasions delay his delivery at the last moment to deceive the batsman into false strokes.
Titmus the man was short, neatly dressed and walked in an almost Chaplinesque manner. He was noted for his quick wit, but could be blunt and opinionated, often biting and acerbic. He could chat away incessantly during a game, without losing focus. According to John Warr, he would sometimes take a catch in mid-sentence. It was said that he walked like Chaplin and wisecracked like Groucho Marx.
Titmus acted as a Test selector in the 1990s, but it was during turbulent times. He did not quite relish the experience. He also helped Harbhajan Singh with his action when the Indian off-spinner was struggling with a suspect delivery.
He remained a man who loved his life and could laugh at his miseries. Once he was knocked off his bike by a post office van. He lay on the ground, writhing in mock agony. When the concerned driver came running, he ripped off his shoe and sock. Pointing to his disfigured foot, he shouted: “Look what you’ve done!” His handicap earned him many a laugh.
Titmus was appointed MBE in 1977. In 1985, the band Half Man Half Biscuit paid homage to the off-spinning all-rounder with their song F***in’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus.
Fred Titmus died after a long illness March 23, 2011.