Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

Street where he was handed over to the tender care of a ‘lovely old lady’, Mrs Southern, who was to be his first landlady. Later that same long, long day Ames took John to the St Lawrence Ground, the home of Kent cricket, and showed him the indoor school where he was to report the following day. But John couldn’t wait for that and, having been dropped at his digs by Ames, he retraced his steps back to the County Ground on his own and wandered into the indoor school again where he was invited to have a bowl by the club cricketers who were practising there. He knocked the stumps over with almost every ball and was then invited by his new friends after the session to have a drink with them in the Bat and Ball, the pub adjoining the ground. Later he at last returned to his digs and, in his freezing cold room, he put on both of the new cricket sweaters he had been given and got into his icy bed. He was so cold; a very long way from the warmth of his mother and his home: it was all so strange that on his first night in England he cried himself to sleep. 26 Belleplaine Boy The Bajan influence. Conrad Hunte, Garry Sobers and Everton Weekes were all key influences in Shepherd’s early career in the Caribbean. All three were knighted.