Bird Name Meaning

Harold Bird

commonly known as "Dickie" Bird is a retired English international cricket umpire. The son of a miner, he gained the nickname 'Dickie' at school. He resides in the South Yorkshire village of Staincross. In 1944 Bird failed his Eleven-plus exam and went to Raley Secondary Modern, leaving in 1948 at the age of 15. For a while, he worked at a coal mine on the surface, but gave it up, deciding it was not for him. Instead, he set out for a career in sport. When a knee injury put paid to playing football professionally, he followed his second love, cricket. In his early career in Barnsley, he played club cricket in the same team as Geoff Boycott, and journalist and chat show host Michael Parkinson, who became a lifelong friend. In 1956, he signed up with his home county, Yorkshire. Between 1956 and 1964, Bird played first class cricket as a batsman for Yorkshire and Leicestershire in the English County Championship. After his county career, he coached and played league cricket before becoming an umpire. He stood (i.e. officiated) in his first county game in 1970. Three years later he officiated at his first Test match, England vs. New Zealand at Headingley Stadium in Leeds. He gained a reputation for stopping play for weather and not giving batsmen out LBW. Bird umpired in 66 Test matches (at the time a world record) and 69 One Day Internationals including 3 World Cup Finals. He came out of retirement in January 2007 to umpire in the XXXX Gold Beach Cricket Tri-Nations series involving cricketing legends from England, the West Indies, and Australia, which took place at Scarborough Beach in Perth, Australia.