Ronald Bird

Ronald Ernest Bird (4 April 1915 – 20 February 1985) 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 Marylebone Cricket Club (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,

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, Bird returned for a full season the following summer, and passed a thousand runs for the first of three times, hitting 1,016 at 26.73 with one hundred – an innings of 116 which "had much to do" with a good win over Yorkshire

The 1953 season was also quite successful for Bird, as he made 1,238 first-class runs at 26.91, with one hundred and five half-centuries. In late May of that year, he made his debut for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord's, captaining the side for the only time and opening the batting; he scored 68 and 40 in a losing cause against Hampshire. However, in 1954 he appeared only 20 times and made only 629 runs with three fifties, at an average of under 22. A defeat at Derby in mid-August, in which he scored 10 and 20 and took the wicket of John Kelly, marked the end of Bird's county cricket career.

All of his four remaining first-class matches were for MCC: two at Lord's (against Gloucestershire in June 1955 and against Cambridge University a year later) and two at Dublin in September 1956 and September 1958, both against Ireland. Bird's only significant contribution in any of these games was the 52 he hit in the first innings against Gloucestershire. He appeared a couple of times for the Second XI in 1959, then after leaving cricket represented Worcestershire at both squash and tennis.