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The Editor Meets...
Dickie Bird MBE
 It could not have been a better day for an audience with Harold Dennis (Dickie) Bird. A cold windy January morning had already been brightened by the prospects of an unlikely England victory against South Africa in Johannesburg. Matthew Hoggard, a Yorkshire lad, was doing the damage in a remarkable spell of swing bowling so much so that they were bowled out for 247 in less than sixty overs. England won by 77 runs and Hoggard had 7 wickets for 61. And England’s captain is another Yorkshire player!
In characteristic style Dickie had been most anxious to ensure that I knew how to find his home on the outskirts of Barnsley. Once he was convinced I wouldn’t get lost, we made definite arrangements. “Yes, no problem – come and have a chat and a cup of tea”. Thinking that he might be concentrating on the drama of the cricket in South Africa I phoned on the day we had arranged to ask if it was still a good idea to come at the agreed time. “No need to change anything” was Dickie’s response –“they’ve got seven wickets down – they’ll beat ’em now”. And so they did.
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 Dickie lives in a lovely old cottage with a magnificent view across open land to the Pennine hills in the north-west. The cottage, like its owner, has a remarkable history. He is proud of the fact that he sleeps in the same bedroom John Wesley slept in on one of his preaching tours in the area in 1761. It all fits in well with Dickie’s solid non-conformist chapel up-bringing and his sense of belonging to a place that means so much to him.
Meeting and writing about someone so well known who has been written about and seen on TV so many times is rather daunting. What is there to say that has not been said before? After all, this man has been described as “a national monument” by no less a person than the heir to the throne. How do you interview a “national monument” or as Prince Phillip described him “one of cricket’s great characters”. Well it wasn’t too difficult as Dickie is hospitable and he loves to talk. We started with a quick look at his many trophies, plaques, medals, photographs, paintings, framed tributes, awards, gifts and books. Two rooms almost full of them so that the cottage is in part a living museum with Dickie sitting in the middle with a pot of tea.
We began talking about Barnsley and what it means to him. Born almost in the centre of the town and the son of a miner, he has an enduring love for the place and its people. “Barnsley people are straight people – you get an honest opinion – you know where you stand”. He added “I wouldn’t live in any other country but England and I wouldn’t be anywhere but Barnsley”. Not bad for a man who has travelled the world with his beloved game. Not bad for a man who has dined at Chequers with three Prime Ministers of the day; Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair, and would be made welcome in so many places. This is not for Dickie. He has his friends and family –especially a sister to whom he is clearly devoted- and he has his roots and he has crystal clear memories. Kicking a football around with the late great Tommy Taylor – his pal from Raley School and later signing up as an amateur with Barnsley Football Club. More and more to Shaw Lane after a leg injury ended a promising football career – and eventually into high quality Yorkshire League cricket with a team that included Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Parkinson. He had hours and hours of football and then especially cricket practice, just as many of us had, until daylight had gone and then back home to look forward to doing it all again as soon as possible and ideally tomorrow!
Good performances in the Yorkshire League brought him to the attention of Yorkshire and the further challenges of making the grade in county cricket first with Yorkshire and then Leicestershire. Cricket coaching and playing in Devon and more coaching in South Africa eventually led to the world of umpiring and how fortunate for the cricket world and for the entertainment of tens of thousands that it did. Dickie had a stage and how he performed! Asked how he feels about becoming a personality as opposed to a good cricketer and umpire, he says he was fortunate with the timing of things. He came into umpiring when cricket was becoming more and more accessible on radio and TV. Television especially brought him to the viewers’ attention as a character – not as Dickie would certainly always maintain, through any deliberate effort on his behalf – but just by being himself; totally dedicated, anxious (even at times slightly over-anxious) to get it right and to communicate with both players and the watching public. Michael Parkinson in his foreword to Dickie’s best-selling autobiography says “I have never met anyone with such a passion for the game”. It is that passion – Dickie would describe it as “just doing a job I loved as well as I could” that made him the umpire he was and the personality he undoubtedly still is.
Talking around cricket and the travel experiences he has had Dickie had no hesitation in listing New Zealand as his second favourite country (after England of course). He has great affection for Lords which will always be a special place for him but ask about cricket overseas and he responds quickly “Sydney Cricket Ground and Eden Gardens at Calcutta.” Sharing our experiences of Calcutta, his eyes widen slightly “What a place – and 120,000 spectators!” What a stage!
As far as cricketers are concerned he has no hesitation. “Best all-rounder – without doubt Sir Garfield Sobers” and Dickie also considers Sobers to be cricket’s best athlete and all round sportsman. Best fast bowler – no surprise at Dennis Lillee who he has observed at very close quarters many times. Slightly more surprising is his choice of Pakistan’s Abdul Qadir as his best spinner, backed up by his comment that “he is the best spinner because he spun it more than any of the others” No arguing with that. Best batsman he has seen – again a quick response - Sir Vivian Richards. As for wicket- keepers, in his autobiography he describes Alan Knott of Kent and England as the doyen of them all and he has not changed his mind. Best Test Captains is more difficult and Dickie opts for four and then adds a fifth; Richie Benaud, Ray Illingworth, Mike Brearley and Ian Chappell. Imran Khan also gets in the frame along with a few gentle asides about the said Imran’s popularity with the ladies!
He switched on the TV just to make sure England had won and went on to say that he thought the current side was the best for a long time. He has a lot of respect for Michael Vaughan as a captain –“they will play for him you see because they respect him”. Respect is something Dickie is very strong on. Respect for the great cricketers but also for ordinary hard working folk like his father James Harold, a miner all his working life, who worked the same coal face at Monk Bretton colliery as Charlie Taylor the father of his good friend Tommy. According to Dickie, his father referring to the possibility of his son following him down the pit, made it very clear that there was “no way that you are having that life”. Bird senior died before Dickie was able to begin his remarkable umpiring career but long before this he had instilled into his talented son the high standards that have stood him in such good stead.
Memories spill out of Dickie and he has a well justified pride in the good things that have been said about him over the years and especially on his retirement. He has received honorary degrees from the University of Leeds and Sheffield Hallam University. He has the honour of being a Freeman of the Borough of his home town of Barnsley and best of all of course an MBE awarded for services to cricket by Her Majesty the Queen. An unashamed royalist Dickie will tell you that he has met her majesty no less than twenty-seven times.
He still watches a lot of cricket of course. As a life member of the MCC and Honorary Life Member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Leicestershire County Cricket Club he is welcome at Lords, Headingley and Grace Road any time he wishes to go – as well as at Test matches anywhere in the world. If an opinion is needed Dickie will provide it but always with kindness and without too much of a suggestion that things used to be better in the old days. In fact he is anxious (that’s the right word for he often appears to be on the edge of some slight anxiety) to look forward and not back and to encourage young sports-people in the way that he as a young lad was helped into the game that became his life.
This has led to the creation a year ago of the Dickie Bird Foundation with a mission to “assist young people under 18 years of age to participate, to the best of their ability, in the sport of their choice irrespective of their social circumstances, culture or ethnicity and to ensure that in so doing, they improve their chances both inside and outside sport”.
With Dickie’s name behind it the Foundation has a great opportunity to make a real contribution. It also presents him with a continuing opportunity to be involved, putting something back into sport, something to plan ahead for and something to worry about. With this as in everything he has done he will give of his best. He knows no other way.
He bid me farewell as the winter sun made a last brief appearance over the far hills. Bad light had come along just at close of play. I remarked on the fact that it happened to be my birthday and what a treat it was to meet him and watch an England cricket team win all on the same day. “Ah well” he said “many happy returns lad” and as for the cricket, “I told you they’d win didn’t I?”
Published Spring 2005. All information correct at time of print
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