DICKIE BIRD

It's been a fascinating day with a visit to Barnsley which is "In Bloom". There is lots of civic pride both in the obvious form; flower beds, statues and so on. But also amongst the people who are definitely proud of their town.

I ventured into the Town Hall to see the new Dickie Bird exhibition and also saw the very fine display of Barnsley FC. I made the most of the interactive facilities. Dickie also played football enjoying the captaincy of Raley Seconday Modern U15s that won the local schools' cup. This is not surprising since he played with Arthur Rowe the shot putter, a 1960 GB Olympian and Tommy Taylor, an England international star of Manchester United, who tragically died in the 1958 Munich Air crash.
Dickie is central front row. Can you work out the other two? The headmaster was called Henry Bird!

I then met a very nice man with a plastic bin liner in his hand, who showed me round the Council Chamber, where there is going to be "a film crew performing this afternoon" he told me.

Dickie might have played football to a higher level but for a knee cartlidge injury which he sustained in a match for the YMCA v Dodworth. He was due to play for a Barnsley XI that day in the Northern League, but that was postponed so he went to play locally and got nailed!

This probably put pay to his first class cricket (he did play 93 first class matches for Boycott and Parkinson's Yorkshire), so he chose umpiring instead and he ended up with 66 Tests and 69 ODIs and other accolades.

Harold Dennis (Dickie) Bird was born in Staincross on 19th April 1933, we forget how aged he is! from a mining family, he too went down the mine but was saved by his cricketing career.

His statue is sited on the town's ring road and had to be "raised up" to dissuade Saturday night revellers from hanging unmentionables on Dickie's raised finger!

It has been a good day!!