Farewell to Dickie Bird, a legend of cricket nurtured in Paignton

Every Monday morning about 9am, in late 1960s summers, the Sports Desk phone would ring in the offices of the old Torquay Times and the nearby Herald Express.

The ritual would be repeated the morning after Paignton CC’s midweek matches.

“Dickie Bird, Paignton Cricket Club professional, here,” said the caller. As if we didn’t know that unmistakeable Yorkshire accent.

“I have the details of yesterday’s match, if you could publish them as soon as possible.”

Those ‘details’ would nearly always include a sizeable innings by H.D. Bird, complete with fours, occasional sixes (Dickie seldom went in for such extravagances), balls received and minutes at the wicket.

He liked the supporters at Queen’s Park, and the wider South Devon cricket community, to know that he was giving value for money.

In five years at Paignton, in the days before leagues and limited-overs, Dickie scored more than 10,000 runs.

Within a year of his departure, he was appointed to the First Class umpiring list, and by 1973 he officiated at his first Test match, against New Zealand at Headingley.

From then on, until only a few years ago, Dickie returned to Paignton, booking in at his favourite Redcliffe Hotel, for an annual holiday away from the pressures of being the most famous umpire in the world.

In later years, after he retired, he loved to be recognised and greeted, and he would seldom, if ever, turn down a request for an autograph or a picture.

Several times he called that same phone at the Herald and invited your correspondent to the Redcliffe for tea and a nostalgic chat.

It’s been said, by boyhood friends Geoff Boycott and Michael Parkinson, that he was too nervous to be a top batsman.

He had the shots, playing for Yorkshire (1956-59) and Leicestershire (1960-64) and scoring 3,314 first-class runs.

It hardly helped him that he played for a champion Yorkshire team full of stars.

He scored 181 not out opening against Glamorgan in 1959 and was dropped for the next match, because Ken Taylor was back from England duty.

But his personality – he was meticulous, scrupulously fair and fit – served him faithfully as an umpire.

He had an early reputation for turning down any LBW appeal that he didn’t consider ‘plumb’, which also helped his rapid rise to the bigger stakes of Tests.

Dickie would not countenance shows of dissent, making his feelings clear on the field, or intimidatory behaviour.

But as 66 Tests and 90 ODIs went by over 17 years at the top, he also allowed his natural sense of humour, even eccentricity, to defuse many a situation involving some of the most aggressive players in the game.

He was particularly proud to umpire seven Women’s ODIs in the early 1980s, keen to play his part in the development of the women’s game.

A confirmed bachelor, Dickie threw himself into a busy round of speaking, fundraising and celebrity opportunities in his retirement.

He was made an MBE in 1986 and an OBE in 2012, for services to cricket and charity, and he also wrote two books, My Autobiography, which sold a million copies, and the follow-up White Caps And Bails.

Always an emotional and honest man, Bird admitted to suffering from loneliness during the days of Covid-lockdown.

But he emerged to continue attending sporting events around Yorkshire – he especially loved the warm receptions he received at Barnsley FC, his beloved Headingley and the Scarborough Festival.

Harold Dennis ‘Dickie’ Bird MBE OBE, professional cricketer for Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Paignton and Test umpire 1973-96, died last week at the age of 92. RIP