Dickie Bird lived for cricket - and the game loved him back

The most consistent and famous umpire, who has died aged 92, had the wonderful ability to provoke a smile - even when things were getting out of hand.

- Vic Marks

Dickie Bird, who has died aged 92, may well have been the most consistent, the most famous and the most loved umpire in cricket history and yet when he pitched up at the grounds of ambitious county teams in the 1970s and 80s there would often be groans in the home dressing room.

Dickie's presence was bound to enliven the game but it would also make it harder to win. Dickie was a cautious umpire, who required certainty before he raised his finger to send a batsman back to the pavilion (often with a bellowed “That’s Out”). To win games, which usually meant taking 20 wickets, the bold captain would prefer one of the more cavalier umpires on the circuit, who might later boast of his hundred victims by the end of May, to be officiating.

Dickie shunned such frivolities; he might regard it as an insult to the game he loved more than anything. A lifelong bachelor, he would later declare, maybe with a tinge of regret, that he was always married to the game of cricket.

Until he took up umpiring in 1970 Dickie's professional career had been undistinguished. As a young man he played for Barnsley CC alongside Michael Parkinson, who remained a constant friend, and soon they were joined in the team by Geoffrey Boycott, who was several years younger but destined to score rather more runs than the other two. Boycott has since acknowledged Bird's natural talent while also referencing, to the surprise of no one, that he was often hampered by nerves.