Figures from sport attend funeral for cricket legend Dickie Bird

Cricketing stars from Yorkshire and beyond were among the mourners who gathered to say farewell to legendary umpire Dickie Bird at his funeral earlier.

The Barnsley-born son of a miner was 92 when he died “peacefully at home” on 22 September, according to Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

The service at St Mary’s Church in Barnsley was attended by former England cricketers Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Vaughan and was followed by a private family-only cremation and a wake at the town hall.

Well-wishers gathered at the statue of Bird on Church Lane where the funeral procession paused for a moment of reflection.

The invited guests also included Yorkshire chair Colin Graves and former director of cricket Martyn Moxon, the sports commentator John Helm and the ex-sports minister Richard Caborn.

Sir Geoffrey and Graves both gave eulogies and a poem by local poet Ian McMillan was read out.

Sir Geoffrey made sure the colourful character of his friend of almost 70 years shined through.

“I first met Dickie Bird when I was 15, at the time I was playing cricket for Hemsworth Grammar School,” Sir Geoffrey said to a packed church.

“He called me Gerald for years.”

He added: “Surprisingly with all the nerves he had as a batsman, he became a great umpire because he could channel all that nervous energy into good decisions.

“Dickie was refreshingly different. Eccentric but fair. It would be hard to find anyone who didn’t like him.”

Bird officiated in 66 Tests and 76 one-day internationals, including three World Cup finals, between 1973 and 1996.

He began as a player, batting for Yorkshire and Leicestershire before an injury cut short his career in 1964.

Bird was awarded an MBE in 1986, an OBE in 2012 and the Freedom of Barnsley in 2000.

In 2009 he was immortalised by a statue in Barnsley that depicted him raising his index finger to indicate a batsman was out.

At Yorkshire’s home ground, Headingley, he paid for a balcony outside the dressing room for the players to sit and watch the game. Both the balcony and a clock at the ground bear his name.

Former England and Yorkshire cricketer Ryan Sidebottom said Bird was so committed to Yorkshire cricket that he would be on the pitch even for county matches he wasn’t umpiring.

He said: “He’d be out looking at the wicket and wandering around. But it looked like he’d just come in from a night out, like an 1980s John Travolta, because he had the full suit on with a large collar and tie and really fancy suits and flared trousers.

“We used to see him regularly with different suits, some naughty suits, some proper naughty suits.”

Bowler Sidebottom retired in 2017, after taking more than 1,000 career wickets, and he said Bird “absolutely loved” the sport.

“Great bloke and a lovely man who would do anything for Yorkshire cricket. He just loved Yorkshire, he was so passionate about the game and Yorkshire in general,” he said.

And it was love for Yorkshire, and its people, that chair of Yorkshire County Cricket Club Colin Graves remembered at his funeral.

“He had a reputation for not being the first at the bar, but he was a very generous mad indeed,” he said, adding that almost 1,000 children had been recipients of grants from him.

Among the junior cricketers to have received financial awards from Dickie was Harry Brook – now an England international.

Speaking to the BBC when he turned 90 two years ago, Bird said his secret to a long life had been his love of sport and exercise.

“I run, I go out down to the local football ground here in the local park and I lap around the ground. I feel that’s done me good.

“I’d like people, elderly people, if they could to just try and do a few exercises, move your arms, run on the spot, it occupies the brain.

“I’ll keep my exercises up as long as I can.”

As a young man, he played for Barnsley Cricket Club alongside Boycott and the journalist and broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson.