Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

enthusiastically described by The Times as being ‘defiant … hard hitting … splendidly aggressive’ and full of ‘thrilling’ and ‘inventive’ strokes. 117 Less than two weeks after the end of the English domestic season John Shepherd was en route to Southern Africa for his final tours of Rhodesia and South Africa and his brief and headline-grabbing spell with the Rhodesian Currie Cup side (see Chapter Five). 1976 A county as accustomed to success as Kent now was could not be satisfied with the meagre returns of 1975: ‘extremely disappointing’ was Les Ames’ rather mournful descriptor in his president’s report in the 1976 Kent annual. So when the players gathered for the new season, Mike Denness’ fifth and controversially, his last as captain, there was hope for better things and a return to trophy-winning ways. In many respects 1976 was the end of an era – and not just at Kent with stalwarts of the past like Denness, Luckhurst, Cowdrey and Graham making their final appearances for the County. The world of cricket was mostly calm during this long, hot summer – Tony Greig failed to make the West Indies ‘grovel’ as he had promised and England were comfortably beaten in the Test series – although Kent’s Knott, Woolmer and Underwood were far from disgraced as ever-presents in the England side. But unknown to the cricketing authorities, a storm was brewing down-under as a hitherto little-known Australian, Kerry Packer, was quietly plotting an audacious coup that would change the game forever. But that was a year away as John Shepherd and his colleagues reported for duty in April 1976. The following month, on 31 May, John’s wife Terry gave birth to a daughter they named Caroline. Whilst the formidable West Indies team revelled in the near-Caribbean conditions of a summer of almost unbroken sunshine, their compatriot, new father John Shepherd also found things very much to his liking with the bat, finishing third in both the Kent first-class and one-day averages and scoring 1,355 runs with ten half-centuries in all competitions. His bowling workload was slightly down from 1975 as once again a few matches were missed mid-season with back problems and he also missed most of the end of the season games after he suffered a broken jaw when he was hit by the Leicestershire medium-pacer Paddy Clift in the second innings of a Championship match at Grace Road. Wisden ’s almost annual tribute to Shepherd’s contribution to Kent was apposite if understated: ‘Shepherd’s all-round ability proved extremely valuable. He had a rewarding season with bat and ball.’ 118 Highlights of Shepherd’s ‘rewarding’ 1976 season included a fifty in each innings and five wickets in the match in an early-season fixture against Middlesex at Lord’s. In Kent’s first innings he hit ‘… a flurry of strokes, the 90 The Consummate Professional 117 Peter Marson in The Times , 6 August 1975. 118 Dudley Moore in Wisden , 1977.