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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Guardian readers and Alfie Packham

‘A proper gent‘: people share memories of cricket umpire Dickie Bird

Dickie Bird
‘A warm, modest man’: Dickie Bird umpiring in 1994. Photograph: Robert Hallam/Shutterstock

‘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

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