‘I paid him in puddings’

In 1983 I worked at the Oval, cooking lunch for 40 in the committee room. After cooking, I had to change out of my whites and into a frock to supervise the room. There were, of course, no changing facilities for women, only a small loo, so Dickie used to usher me into the umpires’ room where there was a shower, and stand outside the door to make sure no one else came in. A proper gent. I paid him in puddings!
Gina Birley, London

‘He reminded me the crowd had come to see him bat, not me bowl’

In the summer of 1967, I noticed an advertisement in The Times announcing that a cricket club touring Devon the following week was short of a player. At age 18, I was a very green club cricketer, so I was surprised to be picked for the team. I was given a lift from Woking by an Marylebone cricket club (MCC) member from whom I learned that the tour was with Hounslow cricket club. One of the fixtures was against Paignton cricket club and HD Bird opened the innings in front of a few hundred people sunning themselves in their deck chairs.

Being tall and probably a bit gangly, I was thrown the new ball to take the second over against Mr Bird and managed to get my fourth delivery to swing the other way and, to my continued surprise, bent gently between his bat and pad to disturb his castle. After the match, he was quite friendly in the bar but couldn’t help reminding me in his flat Yorkshire accent that the crowd had come to see him bat, not me bowl.
Francis Sheppard, Purton, Wiltshire

‘A lover of all things Scarborough’

Every Boxing Day, the Scarborough “fishermen” play a brutal game of football against the “firemen” – the men who in times past fed the steam boilers on the trawlers with wood and coal. The teams arrive at 10, led by a rowdy makeshift band, and followed by the huge crowd of spectators. Prominent among them was Dickie Bird: a Yorkshireman, a lover of all things Scarborough. He supported the charity football match, and bestowed many dry compliments on the well-lubricated footballers. This photo was taken on the beach in 2013 – just one of the many occasions he turned out on nithering North Sea mornings!
John, Scarborough

‘He had the respect of players’

I was a member of Yorkshire [cricket club] for many years. I saw Dickie umpiring many times in county and Test matches. Integrity and fairness are words repeated in his obituaries. He had the respect of players and this cannot be replaced by even the most modern technology.
David Nugent, Prague

‘I loved the way that he could admonish unruly players’

I watched Dickie together with my family while the children were small. We used to go to Headingley and just loved it when Dickie was standing. I loved the way that he could admonish unruly players with a look and shake of his head.
Diana Luther Powell, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

‘I will not go until everybody has had their book signed’

I remember him signing his autobiography in Waterstones in Leicester about 25 years ago. I was near the front of the queue and he was talking to the manager about the sign in the street in front of the shop. Dickie said: “I think the time you have put is not long enough.” The manager said: “That was the time I was told you had to go.” Dickie told the manager: “I will not go until everybody in the queue [which was snaking round both floors of the shop by the time I left] has had their book signed.”
Paul Eglen, Leicestershire

‘Knew how to hold a crowd’

I was a 12-year-old boy, a Yorkshire member living in Northallerton and cricket mad. He was a speaker at a working men’s club in Darlington, and I went with my dad. My family are all from Barnsley (where Dickie is from) and knew him, and he managed to get me in even though I was under 18. The food was pie and mash, and it was the funniest evening of my life up to that point. To see grown mean crying with laughter, but Dickie as straight-faced as Bob Monkhouse, was something else. He knew how to hold a crowd with his many anecdotes. Dad bought me his book, and Dickie signed it. “Keep enjoying your cricket, Daniel.” The book is still at my parents’ house. The first thing I did when I heard the news was to ping Dad and we recalled the evening. It seems like yesterday. What a cricket legend.
Dan Gosling, 52, London

‘A warm, modest man’

I was tasked to organise a formal black tie dinner for 650 guests in the spring of 1984. We needed an after-dinner speaker and I (being a cricket nut) initially approached a certain former Yorkshire and England fast bowler whose fee was way over my budget. A colleague suggested I approach Dickie instead. Dickie’s fee was very modest, and the only proviso was that it was too far for him to drive back to Yorkshire in his Ford Escort after the dinner, so he asked “could you put me up for the night?” He brought the house down with his talk and afterwards, many non-cricket fans said they enjoyed it immensely. He was a warm, modest man and the world is a sadder place following his passing.
Steve Bird, 70, Cheshire