Obituary
The world renowned Test match umpire, aged 92. What an innings he played!
Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
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I love the story I heard Alan Lamb relate years ago. Apparently, when mobile phones first came out (those huge brick-like things) Lamb, who was in the pavilion, got a new batsman to go out to the crease with one of those phones and then hand it to Dickie Bird along with his jersey. Bird had to accept it and then, as the bowler was preparing to run in, Lamb rang the number…
The Guardian included this story in their obit for Bird and, according to them (and I bow to the obit writer’s superior memory), it was Lamb himself who took the phone out to the crease and Botham who then rang the number. I laugh every time I think about Dickie’s tut-tutting when he was first given the phone and then his reaction when it rang.
I was going to post an obit earlier but I was sworn to silence
RIP DB
Oh blimey. That makes me almost as sad as when Brian Johnston died. Bird and Shepherd were the dream team before the days of international umpires. Ouch.
I am sad to hear this news. You can imagine him to be an extremely thorough man, totally devoted to his craft – and someone universally respected and liked. RIP.
To be honest I could have sworn he died years ago, but the fact that even a complete cricket agnostic like me knew his name and remembered that ‘fact’ gives an indication of what a personality he was.
Bloody loved taking them off for bad light!
Allan Lamb’s wind-up of Dickie Bird was a great one. Here’s another classic cricketing wind-up, this time involving Geoff Boycott.
That is excellent.