Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

In the third week in May John Shepherd had an allround match at Edgbaston against Warwickshire which was arguably his finest in the first-class game. On the first day he took seven for 50, one of his best returns in seventeen years of County Championship cricket. John Woodcock in The Times was clearly delighted by Shep’s success ‘ … the old fox bowled splendidly’. Later he wrote ‘ … after lunch he trundled happily away until tea taking five wickets in the process. Six months short of his fortieth birthday he has worked hard at his fitness, which with that great torso of his he must have needed to do.’ 152 The following day Shepherd surpassed even this performance when, coming to the wicket when Gloucestershire were 74 for four, he played the second highest innings of his life, 168, with 5 sixes and 22 fours, in a partnership of 268 with David Graveney to guide Gloucester to 382 for eight declared. John Woodcock, under the headline ‘Shepherd ready to be led into the England fold’, now called for Shepherd to be picked for the England side in the World Cup which was to be played in England in June. 153 And Matthew Engel in The Guardian suggested that Gloucestershire now be called ‘Shepherdshire’! 154 As the World Cup was reaching its climax Shepherd had to settle for the rather more mundane world of county cricket which he did with a continued deluge of runs and flurry of wickets. There was a pugnacious 69 against Northants, 95* against Leicester where an overnight declaration denied Shep his century and then, in the following match at Bristol, a strong Kent team were the visitors. On the first day of the Championship match Shep was awarded his county cap during the lunch interval, which he celebrated by scoring a century after lunch and the following day, also against Kent, he had his best limited-overs figures of six for 52. To complete a productive few days against his old county Shepherd took four for 42 on the last day of the Championship match, including the wickets of Underwood and Knott. Remarkably the following day, at Bath, Shep took five for 80 on the first day of the Championship match against Somerset – fifteen wickets in three days in three different matches – and no burn-out in sight! There were more riches in store in this true annus mirabilis before the end of the season including another astonishing allround performance in August in the Championship match against Glamorgan at Cheltenham. Shep scored 98*, running out of partners as he guided Gloucestershire to 376. Then he took two wickets and two catches to help skittle Glamorgan for 204 and, when their opponents followed on, he took seven for 64 to steer the County to an innings victory. Over the season as a whole, in all matches John Shepherd had eight innings of 50 or more and took four or more wickets in an innings on seven Third Innings 111 152 The Times , 26 and 27 May 1983. 153 Woodcock said that as it was more than ten years since Shepherd had played for the West Indies he was now eligible for England. Sadly the England selectors did not take the distinguished Times correspondent’s advice. 154 ‘The timely Shepherd tends the flock’, The Guardian , 27 May 1983.