Dickie Bird Dickie Bird Harold Dennis "Dickie" Bird, (born 19 April 1933, Staincross, West Riding of Yorkshire, England) is a retired English international cricket umpire. In February 2014, Yorkshire announced that Bird is to be voted in as the club's president at their Annual General Meeting on 29 March. The son of a miner, he gained the nickname 'Dickie' at school. He lives in the South Yorkshire village of Staincross. Bird failed his 11-plus and went to Raley Secondary Modern School, leaving in 1948 at the age of 15. For a while, he worked at a coal mine on the surface, but
Umpire (cricket) at the bowler's end makes the decisions, which he mainly indicates using arm signals. Some decisions must be instantaneous, whereas for others he may pause to think or discuss it with the square leg umpire, especially if the latter may have had a better view. These decisions have an important effect on the play and are signalled straight away. An umpire will not give a batsman out unless an appeal is made by the fielding side, though a batsman may "walk" if he knows himself to be out. This is nowadays rare, especially in Tests and first-class matches for contentious