Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

economical average of 19.93 and only Mike Procter and Ian Botham took more wickets in first-class cricket in England in 1977 than Shepherd. As Kent’s push for the Championship intensified, Shep played a key part in wins against Essex (one wicket) and Nottinghamshire (eight wickets). There was also a fine allround performance in a crucial win over Yorkshire in July when Shep and Alan Ealham turned Kent’s first innings round with a partnership of 109 for the seventh wicket (Shepherd 63) and Shep also took five wickets in the match. As Kent entered the final Championship match of the season against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in early September they were joint second in the table with Middlesex and five points behind Gloucestershire. Gloucestershire faltered in their final match losing to Hampshire, but with Middlesex beating Lancashire and gaining 16 points the news filtered down to Kent at teatime that on the final afternoon of the season they needed to win at Edgbaston to secure 16 points themselves and tie the championship with Middlesex. Kent had been put in a potentially winning position – despite a disastrous first innings of only 118 – by the bowling of Woolmer (three for 32) and, inevitably, Shepherd who had another five-wicket haul, for 63, in Warwickshire’s 181. Then when Kent batted a second time they faltered again to 148 for five before the Ealham/Shepherd partnership fired once more in a stand of 74 and, with Shepherd top-scoring with 77, Kent reached 316 leaving Warwickshire 253 for victory . It looked all over when Warwickshire collapsed to 29 for five but in the end Kent won by only 27 runs as their opponents recovered to 226 all out. A fine Kent win and their second post-war Championship was thus added to their success in 1970, albeit that this time the trophy was shared. And John Shepherd’s part in this achievement was rightly acknowledged by all at the county – as the quote from Wisden at the head of this chapter records. In all cricket for Kent in 1977 Shep took 100 wickets, scored 766 runs and held 21 catches. The tensions in English cricket that Packer-clouded summer were well captured by John Woodcock in The Times when reporting on Kent’s final match. Kent were being frustrated by a last-wicket partnership in their chase for victory and one of the participants in that partnership was the England stalwart David Brown. Woodcock wrote that ‘No one in English cricket … would have been keener to deny Kent, riddled as they are with Packer recruits, than Brown the leader of the anti-Packer lobby.’ 121 The Kent committees were certainly embarrassed by the fact that the county had so many Packer signatories in their dressing room and then soon took steps to get rid of one of them – Bernard Julien was not offered terms for 1978 and intense discussions were also taking place about the future of the captain, Asif Iqbal. But for John Shepherd there was happier news. The Kent General Committee met in November 1977 and agreed that their long-serving stalwart could have a benefit in 1979 122 and Shep was soon to receive a letter from Jim Swanton confirming that this was the case. 94 The Consummate Professional 121 John Woodcock, The Times , 10 September 1977. 122 Minutes of Kent C.C.C. General Committee, 10 November 1977.