Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

Lord’s where he skilfully exploited helpful conditions – and then Kent really got into their stride with wins against Somerset, Gloucestershire (chasing down 340 to win), Surrey and Nottinghamshire by the end of August – with Shepherd playing his part throughout. By the end of August these wins had pulled Kent to second in the table, only twelve points behind Glamorgan and with two matches to play to Glamorgan’s one. Kent’s final home Championship match was against Leicestershire at Folkestone starting on 2 September and their aim was not only to win but also to garner as many bonus points as they could in doing so. At 102 for two in their first innings Leicestershire were looking comfortable on a good wicket but then John Shepherd, having changed ends, took four wickets for nine runs in 21 balls and together with Bob Woolmer they dismissed their opponents for the addition of only 50 more runs and gained maximum bowling points (Shepherd five for 64). Kent batted aggressively right the way down the order and when Shepherd and Johnson combined to take 21 runs off the 85th over they secured an unprecedented eighth batting bonus point, with Shepherd hitting the last two balls for six (straight drives into the pavilion) and then a cover drive for four. Kent went on to force a convincing innings victory and their 23 points took them to the top of the table. In the final match, at The Oval, Kent needed only a handful of points to secure their first County Championship for 57 years and these duly came with Shepherd contributing three wickets as Kent gained four bowling points: four batting points were to follow in a rain-affected match. We are the Champions 55 The Kent side which won the County Championship in 1970, for the first time since 1913. Standing (l to r): Len Kilby (masseur), Bob Woolmer, John Shepherd, Alan Brown, Norman Graham, John Dye, Graham Johnson, Asif Iqbal, Colin Page (coach) and Claude Lewis (scorer). Front row: David Nicholls, Alan Knott (wk), Derek Underwood, Mike Denness, Colin Cowdrey (captain), Leslie Ames (secretary/manager), Stuart Leary, Brian Luckhurst and Alan Ealham.