Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

last of which [was] a beautifully timed straight drive, to the seats in front of the pavilion’ 119 and in the second innings he hit 52, of which no fewer that 50 runs were in boundaries (11 fours and a six). Later in May Shep hit another boundary-filled innings of 73 against Hampshire at Southampton, but in June against Essex at Tunbridge Wells he had to retire from the match early on the first morning with severe back problems which were to keep him out of cricket for ten days. Soon after his return Shepherd was in good allround form in a high scoring draw with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge (58* and four for 89) and he showed that his bowling was back at its best with three for 60 and five for 69 against Hampshire at Maidstone. In July and August Shepherd enjoyed the rock-hard pitches and fast outfields with five fifties in the space of two weeks and later in August he caused Somerset to collapse at Taunton with another five-wicket haul. At the end of this personally productive season Shepherd had another fine allround match at Leicester where, coming to the wicket with Kent in trouble at 89 for four, he and Mike Denness rescued the innings with Shepherd making his highest score of the season, 87, with 14 fours and a six before being caught on the long leg boundary – he also took four for 62 in the Leicestershire first innings and was again Kent’s top scorer in their second innings with 38. Whilst John Shepherd was demonstrating once again his value to Kent, the direction of the county was meandering unwittingly into uncharted waters and missing the guiding hand of Les Ames on the tiller. Ames’ successor as secretary, Eric Attenborough, had an unhappy three years in the job and left at the end of the 1976 season and his successor as cricket manager Colin Page was a less-than-sensitive man manager. The Chairman of the Cricket sub-Committee and his fellow committee members were also struggling to cope with the changing circumstances in the relationship between professional cricketers and amateur committee men – a problem that was to come further to a head in 1977. But at the end of the 1976 season the principal casualty in this leadership void was county captain Mike Denness. Denness, who had lost the England captaincy to Tony Greig in 1975, now relinquished the Kent captaincy in confused circumstances – a story which reflects badly on the bungling hierarchy of the club’s management and the Machiavellian nature of some of the parties involved. The irony of all of these shenanigans was that by most standards Kent had enjoyed a very successful season. The Benson and Hedges Cup had been won in a stirring Lord’s final against Worcestershire in July with John Shepherd playing his part, especially by breaking Kent’s opponents’ patient opening partnership and helping reduce them to 90 for four, a position from which they never recovered. There was also an extraordinary win in the Sunday League when five counties had been in the running before the final day. Kent scored 278 runs in their innings (7 runs per over which crucially boosted their season’s run-rate) against Gloucestershire and then dismissed their opponents for a paltry 155 for a comfortable win The Consummate Professional 91 119 Peter Marson in The Times , 30 April 1976.