Lives in Cricket No 10 - John Shepherd

for 25 in the Benson and Hedges Cup final at Lord’s against Derbyshire – both matches which Kent won. For some seasons successive Kent captains had been using John Shepherd as a flexible resource with the bat. When the county boasted as many as seven players in the side who had scored centuries in Test cricket, 129 as they did at times in the mid-1970s, then Shep would bat well down the order, but when Test calls reduced the batting strength he would be promoted. In 1978 the Kent team was in transition which meant that both the new captain and John Shepherd had to accept a more prominent batting role. Both responded admirably, with Ealham usually batting at No.5 in the Championship averaging over 30 and Shepherd, promoted to six, scoring 785 runs at an impressive 35.68. Batting highlights included a hard-hit 58 against Middlesex at Lord’s which Colin Cowdrey remembered as including Shep despatching ‘ … a good length ball from John Emburey onto the top tier of the pavilion, the largest hit I have ever seen.’ 130 There was also a fine century against Surrey at Tunbridge Wells in June. Coming to the crease with Kent on 131 for four, he put on 112 with Ealham and completed his hundred (a six and 14 fours) in less than three hours just before Ealham declared at 311 for six – Kent won the match by an innings. In July Kent had to chase a total of 223 in 225 minutes for victory in a key Championship match against Glamorgan at Maidstone. The loss of three wickets for only 36 runs slowed the chase but this brought Shepherd to the crease and together with Chris Tavaré he saw Kent home with 12 overs to spare, scoring 65* with 3 sixes and 9 fours. This was Kent’s ninth Championship win in thirteen matches and it took them 26 points clear at the top of the table. Hopes were high for retention of the Championship title and that Kent would be sole winners this time. And so it proved – an unbeaten run took the county to the title by the third week in August and they eventually finished a comfortable 19 points clear of Essex to win their sixth and to date 131 last County Championship. During the run-in John Shepherd had scored another century, his seventh in first-class cricket, 100* against Worcestershire at New Road to help set up another Kent win. The Championship triumph was just what the Doctor would have ordered and his namesake Colonel Grace, the Kent President elect, had another trophy to celebrate as well when they moved fairly effortlessly to another Benson and Hedges final – this time against Derbyshire. It was a one-sided match once John Shepherd, swinging the ball prodigiously, had helped dismiss Derbyshire for 147 – he took four for 25 in 11 tight overs and then with Kent slightly worrying their supporters at 117 for four, he and Ealham quietly steered them to victory with 13 overs to spare and well before six o’clock. John Woodcock enthused in The Times about Kent: ‘Twice winners of the Gillette Cup, three times of the Sunday League and now three times The Consummate Professional 97 129 Denness, Luckhurst, Cowdrey, Woolmer, Julien, Asif Iqbal and Knott. 130 Colin Cowdrey, ‘A true man of Kent’ in John Shepherd Benefit Souvenir , 1979. 131 Up to the end of the 2008 season during which Kent was relegated to the lower division of the two-tier Championship for the first time.