Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

Chapter Two Kentish Apprentice Shepherd … from Barbados, is an all-rounder of considerable ability Kent County Cricket Club Annual Report, 1965 1965 The Kent County Cricket Club that John Shepherd joined in April 1965 was long on ambition but short on achievement. The ambition came especially from the captain, Colin Cowdrey, who had taken over in 1957 but had so far failed to deliver the prize of a County Championship – or come near to doing so. The cupboard had been bare since 1913 and successive finishes of 14th, 8th, 13th, 10th, 11th, 11th, 13th and 7th under the Cowdrey leadership did not suggest that things were going to change dramatically. But behind the scenes there were promising developments – not least the emergence of a new generation of talented young players, some of whom were being fast-tracked into the first team. Future Test batsmen Brian Luckhurst and Mike Denness were beginning to find their feet after a faltering start, and they were joined by the precocious talents of Alan Knott and Derek Underwood – both still teenagers at the beginning of the 1965 season. The signing of Denness from Scotland in 1962 and of the tall fast bowler Norman Graham from Northumberland in 1964 showed that the county, under the Secretary/Manager Les Ames and Cowdrey, were casting their net widely and, of course, the arrival of John Shepherd was part of the process of being prepared not just to rely on Kentish men or men of Kent. The seventh position finish in 1964 was seen as a comparative success and there was optimism around the county. The arrival of the Gillette Cup competition in 1963 gave a second opportunity for a trophy for the first time and there was a growing recognition that the squad needed flexibility and allround talents down the order to succeed in both competitions. John Shepherd was to have to wait two years before he could contribute to what was to be a resurgence of Kent cricket more spectacular than even the most optimistic supporter could have hoped for from the vantage point of the mid-1960s. But first he had to settle and adapt not just to the strangeness of green English wickets but to the unfamiliarity of his new home. A great help to him was the fact that Mike Denness and his wife Molly took him into their home – and he was to be a very welcome house-guest of theirs for the next eighteen months. But notwithstanding this kindness, he was for the first time in his life, at the age of 21, well out 27