Some of Bermuda?s finest cricketers yesterday paid tribute to late Yorkshire, Derbyshire and England fast bowler Fred Trueman who died of lung cancer on Saturday at the age of 75.

Trueman made his England Test debut against India at Leeds in 1952 ? just a year before arriving in Bermuda for the first of what would be three tours to the Island with various squads ? and claimed a then best eight for 31.

In 1964 Trueman became the first bowler from any country to take 300 Test wickets.

He toured Bermuda with Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1953, with a combined Middlesex and Surrey XI in 1955 and again with Yorkshire in 1961.

?He was a great man and a great bowler,? recalled former St.George?s Cup Match skipper Cal (Bummy) Symonds. ?He was like a comedian but he got the job done. He was from those coal mines in Yorkshire, very hard.?

Symonds played against Trueman at Somerset Cricket Club in 1953.

?We didn?t have any helmets, thigh pads or anything else like that during those days,? added Symonds, 74. ?He hit a few guys up at Somerset Cricket Club playing on the old concrete pitch, but after awhile we got used to him.

?But he was a great man and my condolences go out to his family.?

Clarence Parfitt, Cup Match?s all-time leading wicket taker, played against a Middlesex and Surrey XI bolstered by the likes of Trueman and former West Indies skipper Sir Gary Sobers, also at Somerset.

?He was a very cheerful guy who played to the crowd,? remembered Parfitt, speaking from the UK. ?He did what the crowd wanted him to do . . . like bouncing and things like that. And he was good competition. He was a first class player.?

Dennis Wainwright sr, Cup Match?s most successful wicketkeeper, described Trueman as an ?aggressive? bowler.

?He was a very aggressive individual on the field. He was a fast bowler through and through,? said Wainwright, who faced the late Trueman twice on local soil.

?He bowled with fiery pace and if you hit him or he beat you with a delivery he would come down to you and ask ?do you know what you are doing? with that expression on his face.?

In 1965, Wainwright, who represented St.George?s in Cup Match from 1957 to 1977, faced Trueman and Sobers in the same match at the former Nationals Sports Club.

?He was a great bowler and the combination of him and Brian Statham in the England Test team destroyed many countries,? added Wainwright.

?Trueman was very hostile and he would shake you up, hence the name Fiery Fred. But off the field you would not find a nicer person and I spent a lot of time with him.

?We attended many cocktail parties together and I drove him a couple of times to the hotel along with Geoff Boycott who also played for Yorkshire at the time. He was a gentleman and a fierce competitor.?

Lloyd James, the first local batsman to score two centuries in Cup Match, said: ?He (Trueman) was full of jokes and a very outspoken individual. I remember playing against him, but don?t recall anything special about the occasion other than at the time he was one of the fastest bowlers in the world.

?He was a very talkative person who made you feel as though you had known him a long time. When I learned of his death my mind slipped back to those times . . . I thought he was a very outgoing person.

?I recall once having a lively conversation with Fred and the late Kenny (Mersie) Smith (former Warwick cricketer and umpire), and I got to like him (Trueman) because of that.

?A couple of times I faced him he jumped in the air (appealing) and then when I got the down the other end (of the crease) I asked him ?what was all that jumping about for? and he replied: ?oh you little smart bloke?.?

Former Southampton Rangers and St.George?s Cup Match all-rounder Eldon Raynor recalled: ?He was a very fierce bowler who would knock your head off in a minute. He reminded me of Wes Hall, Charlie Griffiths and Michael Holding.

?He was a great, great player and one of the fastest bowlers I ever faced. He was a very good sportsman both on and off the field. But when he bowled he had no friends.?