Ronald Bird

Who was Ronald Bird?

Ronald Ernest Bird, sometimes known as Ronnie, was an English cricketer who played 195 first-class matches in the years after the Second World War. 190 of these were for Worcestershire, while the other five were for MCC. He captained Worcestershire between 1952 and 1954, though he had acted as such on many occasions during the previous two seasons when official captain Bob Wyatt was unavailable. He usually batted at number four, while his fast-medium bowling was of the occasional variety: he never took a season's tally of wickets into double figures.

Although Bird was on the groundstaff at Warwickshire as early as 1934, he never played for that county, and the intervention of the Second World War meant that he was 31 before he made his first-class debut. This was for Worcestershire against the touring Indians at Worcester in early May 1946. Bird's contribution to a narrow Worcestershire win was minimal: he scored 0 and 3, did not bowl, and held a single catch to dismiss Lala Amarnath.

Bird quickly established himself in the first team, and was capped that year, playing 24 times in all and ending the year with 801 runs at 20.53 including three half-centuries. Although he was only available for half Worcestershire's games in 1947, he nevertheless made his first century – 105 against Sussex in June – and passed fifty twice more. The following month he took his first wicket, against the same opponents, when he caught and bowled John Langridge.