Bird Albert Image 1 Worcestershire 1907

Description

Moseley, Birmingham born Albert Bird was a useful right-arm offbreak bowler and lower order right-handed batsman who played for Worcestershire for the first ten years of their existence as a first class County and appeared in 143 matches between 1899 and 1908.

Bird was 31 by the time he played in his – and indeed Worcestershire’s – first County Championship match, against Yorkshire in May 1899. He scored 14 and nought, and bowled eight overs without reward. He again went wicketless in his second match, against Sussex, and his third against Warwickshire was ruined by the weather. Bird finally broke his duck in his fourth game, when he bowled Oxford University’s Lionel Collins for 42.

The years between 1901 and 1904 saw Bird’s best performances, as he took around 50 wickets each summer, and claimed a total of 16 of his 20 career five wicket hauls. These included an outstanding performance against Hampshire in 1901 when he took 7-53 in the first innings and 7-56 in the second for a match return of 14-109, one of three career 10 wicket matches he bowled; as well he recorded his career best bowling figures of 7-41, taken against Oxford University in 1903. His only two first class fifties were made in 1902 (64 not out against Lancashire), and in 1904 (63 not out against Yorkshire), and he passed a thousand runs in both 1903 and 1904. He scored 1,951 career runs at an average of 12.04 with the bat.

1905 was a poor year for Bird as he could manage only eight wickets at over 32 runs apiece, and though in 1906 he took 35, from then onwards he gradually became less of a force in the Worcestershire team, playing his final game in July 1908 against Somerset. By then he had taken 292 career wickets at an average of 25.35. He also took 55 catches in first class cricket.