Sad to read in yesterday’s Times of the death of former test umpire David Shepherd. He seems to have been a part of cricket for my whole life, as a player with Gloucestershire and then as a test umpire. The advent of neutral test umpires means that he didn’t appear in the UK in later years, but I remember watching him in action in an England v Australia game, and Ian Botham giving him grief over his superstitious habit of standing on one leg when the score got to 111. A great character and a really good umpire.
