Early-riser Bird takes centre stage bow as Boycott completes Test set

This week’s Headingley Test between England and New Zealand marks a special milestone for Dickie Bird. Chris Waters looks back.
Dickie Bird, Geoff Boycott and Ray Illingworth leave the Headingley square after England's 1973 victory over New Zealand.Dickie Bird, Geoff Boycott and Ray Illingworth leave the Headingley square after England's 1973 victory over New Zealand.
Dickie Bird, Geoff Boycott and Ray Illingworth leave the Headingley square after England's 1973 victory over New Zealand.

IT was half a lifetime ago.

Literally.

In July, 1973, Dickie Bird umpired his first Test when England played New Zealand at Headingley.

Now, 40 years on, and recently turned 80 years young, Bird will be a spectator at the corresponding game that starts on Friday, a prospect sure to bring a tear to his eye.

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It was with characteristic readiness that Bird rocked up for his maiden Test match in 1973.

He got to the ground at 7.00am, so early that the gates were locked and he had to wait for the groundstaff to arrive.

Once admitted to the venue where he made his County Championship debut for Yorkshire in 1957, Bird headed straight for the top of the Rugby Stand.

There, with only his own thoughts for company, and long before the teams and spectators turned up, he contemplated the five days ahead.

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“I just sat there at the back of the stand, looking out over the empty ground,” he recalls.

“All sorts of thoughts were going through my mind: how lucky I was to be umpiring a Test match, how fitting that the game should be at Headingley, hoping very much that I’d be successful, that there’d be no bad light, that there’d be no rain, you name it.

“I had to pinch myself to believe where I was.

“I felt really nervous, but also very proud.”

As the clock ticked down to the start of play, and as the butterflies took hold in Dickie’s stomach, he had more cups of tea than he cares to remember.

This necessitated more visits to the toilet than he cares to remember, but, once he crossed the boundary for the start of the match, he was in his element.

“I was fretting a bit before play started,” he remembers.

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“I had a long chat with the groundstaff, I had a good look at all the boundary ropes to make sure they were in order, I had a look at the sightscreens to ensure that they were in order, too, anything to keep busy and pass the time.

“But once the game began all the nerves disappeared. As it turned out, there was no rain or bad light, England won quite comfortably, and the whole thing went smoothly from my point of view.”

It was the third and final Test of a three-match series, England winning by an innings and one run after they had prevailed in the first match at Trent Bridge by 38 runs and drawn the second Test at Lord’s.

After New Zealand captain Bev Congdon won the toss at Headingley, the Kiwis made 276, Mark Burgess top-scoring with 87 and Yorkshire pace bowler Chris Old returning 4-41.

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England – captained by Ray Illingworth – replied with 419, Geoffrey Boycott leading the way with 115, Keith Fletcher contributing 81, Illingworth 65, and left-arm pace bowler Richard Collinge capturing 5-74.

New Zealand were routed for 142 second time around, opening batsman Glenn Turner scoring 81 and Surrey pace bowler Geoff Arnold taking 5-27 from 22 overs.

Boycott’s hundred was the highlight of the game and completed his set against the Test-playing nations.

On a challenging surface, he batted for three hours and 21 minutes, striking 20 boundaries in his 181-ball stay.

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Wisden praised the “impeccable judgement and a sense of aggression that has not always been apparent in his play.”

The almanack continued: “It is hard to imagine that anybody could have played better than this on a pitch which had taken four hours rain on the second day.”

For Bird, the thing that stands out most about the match was not the cricket itself but a comical incident.

A well-known West Indian spectator named Ronald Griffiths, renowned for his light-hearted barracking, directed one or two playful comments in Bird’s direction and the Yorkshireman – in full view of the packed crowd and a television audience of millions – invited him onto the field and offered him his umpiring coat.

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“He was a harmless soul and he went to all the Test matches in those days,” says Bird. “He was shouting out various things so I beckoned him over to come onto the field. I walked towards him and, as I did so, I took off my jacket and invited him to put it on.

“It was all in good fun and the crowd erupted, but you could never get away with doing that now.”

For Bird, fun and enjoyment were essential factors.

“I told myself when I walked onto the field for that first Test that I’m going to enjoy this,” he says. “At the time, I could never have imagined that I would go on to umpire 66 Test matches, so I just concentrated on trying to make the most of the experience.

“I told myself that I was going to be my own man, that I was going to umpire with a smile on my face, and that I would have a laugh and a joke with the players and the crowd. I tried to stick to those principles throughout my career, and I loved every minute of my time as an umpire.”

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That Bird made an instantly favourable impact was evident when England pace bowler John Snow wrote in his newspaper column: “There is nothing like a Test match at Headingley for bringing out the best in a Yorkshire-born cricketer.

“They obviously feel they can do no wrong in front of their own supporters. Geoff Boycott’s great century, Ray Illingworth’s highest score of the series, Chris Old’s performance with bat and ball. All great stuff.

“Don’t overlook the performance of another Yorkshireman either – Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird, from Barnsley, making his debut as a Test umpire.

“Dickie was so keen to get going, he was at Headingley on the first day while the rest of us were still tucked up in bed.

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“He is easily recognisable with his white flat hat, his elaborate signals, and his speed off the mark getting into positions for run-outs. I am sure he will be around the Test scene for some time to come.”