{"id":211657,"date":"2025-10-19T19:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T19:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/211657\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T19:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T19:57:10","slug":"figures-from-sport-attend-funeral-for-cricket-legend-dickie-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/211657\/","title":{"rendered":"Figures from sport attend funeral for cricket legend Dickie Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grace Wood & Adam LaverYorkshire<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Dickie Bird’s funeral cortege passes the umpire’s statue in Barnsley<\/p>\n

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

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

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.<\/p>\n

Well-wishers gathered at the statue of Bird on Church Lane where the funeral procession paused for a moment of reflection.<\/p>\n

\"AnthonyAnthony Devlin\/PA Wire<\/p>\n

Dickie Bird died on 22 September aged 92<\/p>\n

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

Sir Geoffrey and Graves both gave eulogies and a poem by local poet Ian McMillan was read out.<\/p>\n

Sir Geoffrey made sure the colourful character of his friend of almost 70 years shined through.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“He called me Gerald for years.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“Dickie was refreshingly different. Eccentric but fair. It would be hard to find anyone who didn’t like him.”<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Sir Geoffery Boycott paid tribute to his old friend Dickie Bird<\/p>\n

Bird officiated in 66 Tests and 76 one-day internationals, including three World Cup finals, between 1973 and 1996.<\/p>\n

He began as a player, batting for Yorkshire and Leicestershire before an injury cut short his career in 1964.<\/p>\n

Bird was awarded an MBE in 1986, an OBE in 2012 and the Freedom of Barnsley in 2000.<\/p>\n

In 2009 he was immortalised by a statue in Barnsley that depicted him raising his index finger to indicate a batsman was out.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"ReutersReuters<\/p>\n

Dickie Bird retired as an umpire at the age of 65 after a career spanning 30 years<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“We used to see him regularly with different suits, some naughty suits, some proper naughty suits.”<\/p>\n

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

“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.<\/p>\n

And it was love for Yorkshire, and its people, that chair of Yorkshire County Cricket Club Colin Graves remembered at his funeral.<\/p>\n

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

Among the junior cricketers to have received financial awards from Dickie was Harry Brook – now an England international.<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Barker\/PA Wire<\/p>\n

Dickie Bird was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Leeds in 1997<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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. <\/p>\n

“I’ll keep my exercises up as long as I can.”<\/p>\n

As a young man, he played for Barnsley Cricket Club alongside Boycott and the journalist and broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson.<\/p>\n

Dickie Bird shares secret to healthy life at 90<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grace Wood & Adam LaverYorkshire PA Media Dickie Bird’s funeral cortege passes the umpire’s statue in Barnsley Cricketing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-211657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}