Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

qualified to play in first-team competitions, Shepherd moved from a weekly wage of £15, paid only during the season, to an annual salary of £450. 41 (This compares with the salaries of the senior players like Denness and Underwood who were paid £700 p.a.) John Shepherd’s County Championship debut for Kent was at Trent Bridge on 29 April 1967 and in Nottinghamshire’s first innings of 171 he took three for 53, with his first Championship wicket being that of his fellow West Indian Deryck Murray. On an awkward pitch Kent also struggled and when Shepherd came to the wicket they were in some trouble at 50 for five. Shepherd and Leary steadied the ship with a partnership of 87 for the sixth wicket and Shepherd went on to score 55, Kent’s top score and an innings described in Wisden as ‘defiant’, out of a total of 169. The match petered out as a draw – with snow stopping play! Shepherd travelled to and from the match with Colin Cowdrey in the latter’s elegant Jaguar – a gesture which was the Kent skipper’s characteristically thoughtful welcome to the newcomer to the team. However the journey was not without its stresses as, on the way from the ground after the match, Cowdrey, in his enthusiasm to discuss the game, lost concentration, took a wrong turning and headed off in the wrong direction on the motorway. To Shepherd’s alarm Cowdrey then crossed the central reservation – no barriers in those days – and completed an illegal U-turn to head back in the right direction! In early May Kent played the Indian touring side at Canterbury and Shepherd scored what was then his highest first-class score of 70 not out against an attack that included the spin maestros Bishan Bedi and Bhaghwat Chandrasekhar – he also took the wickets of Farokh Engineer and Ajit Wadekar in the Indians’ first innings. Next there was Shepherd’s debut in competitive one-day cricket when he played his first Gillette Cup game against Essex. Whilst this debut was not particularly personally auspicious Kent won and then beat Surrey in the next round to qualify for a semi-final against Sussex at Canterbury in July. This was Shepherd’s biggest match to date and nearly 17,000 spectators crammed into the St Lawrence Ground on a day blessed with fine weather. Kent batted first and John Snow removed Mike Denness quickly. Shepherd had been promoted to bat at number three and, with the ball flying around their heads, he and Brian Luckhurst then put on 135, with Wisden recording that ‘ … the West Indian Shepherd punished the menacing Sussex attack right from the start of his innings’ and John Woodcock in The Times saying, ‘They have taken Shepherd to their hearts in Kent, and he responds to that with a flashing grin and as many boundaries as he can manage.’ 42 Shepherd’s 77 set up Kent who reached a match-winning total of 293 in their 60 overs with Cowdrey playing a ‘majestic innings’ of 78 ‘like a galleon in full sail,’ according to Woodcock, albeit partly against the lesser bowlers, to win the Man of the Match award from Alec Bedser – an award that had seemed destined for Shepherd. At the end of the match Cowdrey had the grace to Kentish Apprentice 32 41 Minutes of Kent C.C.C. Cricket sub-Committee, 10 November 1966. 42 John Woodcock, The Times , 20 July 1967.