Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

and Hedges tournament was also a disappointment, with Kent failing to make the knock-out stages despite wins against Sussex and Essex. In the County Championship and Sunday League, however, a trophy beckoned as the season drew to its close. In the three-day tournament Kent finished runners-up to Warwickshire, but on the final day of the Sunday League a fine run of five wins had put Kent in with a chance, but needing to beat Worcestershire in the final match. This they duly achieved in front of a crowd of 12,000 at Canterbury. In those last six winning matches Shepherd took nine wickets in 48 overs and conceded only 160 runs in total (3.33 runs per over) – a significant contribution. He also played an important innings of 28* against rivals Leicestershire to help Kent to a total of 172 which was just enough for a crucial five-run win. That match also saw Shepherd get an unusual wicket – one of the very few stumpings in his long bowling career. Alan Knott, who was standing back, threw down the stumps to catch top-scorer Tolchard out of his ground. 1973 As a prelude to the 1973 season Kent, as Sunday League champions, were invited to tour the West Indies for a month in January to play forty-over matches against local sides. The county team was augmented by one or two players from other counties, including Mike Brearley and Keith Boyce, and they all had a jolly and perhaps not entirely serious few weeks away from the depths of an English winter. John Shepherd played in most of the matches, including those in Bridgetown where family and friends came to see him on what was once his home turf. Shepherd had a few good innings on the tour – including a 57* against Guyana and took his usual share of wickets. Kent had few victories on the tour but one was against Antigua where a young batsman of ‘sound technique and bold method’ impressed Colin Cowdrey who felt that he would ‘play for the West Indies soon’. The batsman was Vivian Richards. Mike Brearley recalled the extensive hospitality of the tour and wondered at its end whether he was the first batsman to reach 1,000 rums before the end of January! 67 1972 had been Mike Denness’ first full year as captain of Kent and the successes of that season hinted that he was moulding a very fine side indeed – building on the foundations laid by his predecessor. And so it was to prove as Denness proudly recorded in his autobiography: ‘ … only in one of my five years as captain did Kent fail to win anything, and in two of those years we won two competitions.’ 68 Expectations for the 1973 season were understandably high, with the one-day tournaments seen as being a potentially more fruitful hunting ground than the Championship. The playing staff contained no fewer than nine players who had already played international cricket (Denness, Cowdrey, Asif, Julien, Knott, Luckhurst, Underwood, Woolmer and Shepherd) and, although Test calls were to We are the Champions 61 67 The Cricketer. Spring Annual , 1973 68 Mike Denness, I eclare, Arthur Barker, 1977.