Frederick Sewards Trueman was a Yorkshire and England cricketer, regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. Known as Fiery Fred, he was first man to take 300 Test wickets, and later became a popular and outspoken radio summariser.
In the 1970s Trueman presented the Yorkshire Television ITV programme Indoor League, which was broadcast at 5.15pm on a Thursday evening, after the children's programmes. This show had a notably Northern, working class focus, and featured pub games such as darts (broadcast for the first time on television), bar billiards, shove ha'penny, skittles and arm-wrestling. Trueman anchored the programme with a pint of bitter and his pipe to hand, and signed off each week with his catchphrase, "al sithi".
Diagnosed with small cell carcinoma in May 2006, he succumbed to the disease on 1 July 2006, and died at Skipton in North Yorkshire.