Recalling Duncan Spencer, the cricketer who lived fast and bowled even faster

Duncan Spencer played football as a kid, before taking up cricket and becoming a batsman. Then he found his sporting superpower: he could bowl ‘quite quick’

By Rob Smyth for The Nightwatchman, of the Guardian Sport Network

You may not have heard of Duncan Spencer. If you have, you’ll probably recall one or all of the following things: he bowled at the speed of light to Sir Viv Richards on live TV, he had serious injury problems, and he was the first player in Australian cricket to be banned for taking performance-enhancing drugs.

All those are true, but a 140-character biography barely skims the surface of an extraordinary life story. Spencer might just be England’s great lost fast bowler. And Australia’s. Even in a golden age of quick bowling, his volcanic pace stood out. Richards said Spencer was the fastest bowler he’d faced. Ricky Ponting, who almost had a fight with Spencer in the middle of a Sheffield Shield match, said he and Shoaib Akhtar were the quickest he came up against. Dennis Lillee described Spencer as “frightening”.

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