Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

beginning, a consultant finally diagnosed Terry Shepherd to be suffering from cancer of the lymph nodes. It was with this knowledge that Shep worked at Bristol, including captaining the Gloucestershire Second Eleven in two matches, the second of which, against Derbyshire on 10, 11 and 12 May, was to be his last ever senior cricket appearance. Terry Shepherd died in July 1989. John and his three children, now aged 13, 11 and 6, had not only to cope with grief but also to try and find a practical way to live as a one-parent family. The younger daughter, the eleven-year-old Jacqueline, reassured her father: ‘Don’t you worry Dad, we’ll look after you.’ ‘Oh dear’ thought John, ‘isn’t that my line?’ John’s mother flew in from Barbados and was to stay for six months as John fulfilled his commitment to Gloucestershire, where it was mutually agreed that he would leave the county at the end of the 1989 season. There is never an ideal time for bereavement but for John to be widowed at this time, knowing that his longer-term employment at Gloucestershire was uncertain, and with no immediate prospects of alternative work and no pension or other income source, it was doubly hard. He had secured an interview at Sussex for their vacant coach’s job but lost out to Norman Gifford. He had heard nothing from Kent County Cricket Club and a sense of pride stopped him from knocking on their door – convenient though it would have been to return to his original English cricket home. Although the children were still young, John Shepherd was a competent house-husband – he knew how to cook and wash and clean, and in the year after his wife’s death it was inevitably the children that were his first priority. But he knew that he must find a job and also that at the age of 46 this might be difficult. He trod water for a while, carrying out some talent spotting around the Kent schools on behalf of a wealthy businessman and cricket enthusiast John Martin, but this half-job finished at the end of 1991 and John then thought seriously about moving with the children back to Barbados. He gave an interview to the Kent Messenger to this effect and this led shortly to an approach from Graham Cowdrey as to whether Shep might be interested in a cricket professional vacancy at the independent school Eastbourne College. The Cowdrey family had good connections in Sussex, especially since Colin Cowdrey had established himself at Angmering Park, Littlehampton, in 1985 on his marriage to Lady Herries. An interview and job offer followed and in 1992 Shepherd took up the post of cricket professional at the school. As well as being a job for which he was ideally suited there were also attractive fringe benefits – a four-bedroomed flat was made available at a peppercorn rent and his children were admitted to the school at very advantageous fees. The cricket facilities at the school were excellent and the overall atmosphere was delightful – especially after the trauma of bereavement and the stressful world of county cricket. In his first year at the school, Shep guided the First Eleven to an unbeaten season which included wins over most of their main rivals and in 1993 the Cowdreys’ alma mater Tonbridge was defeated. A star pupil was Alex Bogdanovski who had clearly inherited some of his Third Innings 115