Keith Dibb is still in love with the “wonderful” game of cricket as he enters his 75th season helping to keep players in line.
England’s oldest cricket umpire Keith Dibb who has reached 90 umpiring in Leeds (Image: © Glen Minikin)
Britain’s longest-serving cricket umpire is back in his whites for his 75th season. Keith Dibb, aged 90, is believed to be the oldest umpire in the country and has taken charge of more than 1,000 matches over the course of his cricketing career.
He proudly takes his white umpire’s coat everywhere, packing them when he goes on his holidays, which has led to him overseeing matches in Australia, New Zealand and Barbados.
Even his two shoulder operations and knee replacement surgery couldn’t stop him turning out every weekend.
Keith pictured at Hawksworth 1952 where he played for 50 years(Image: © Glen Minikin)
Now the pensioner from Leeds is passing on his wealth of experience as he mentors new officials in the game.
“It’s been wonderful meeting all the people over the years,” he told The Mirror. “I’m not as sharp as I was. I’m mentoring now because I’ve now had another operation for a knee replacement and I’m a bit slow moving, so the league said ‘we don’t want you to get hurt so we’d rather you mentor’. So I will be showing people the ropes.”
He told of the joy he gets from meeting people including his latest trip to Headingley for four days to watch the county match. “There’s people I haven’t seen for 20 years and they said, excuse me for swearing; ‘bloody hell are you still about?’ That was wonderful. It’s a bit like an occupation. I’ve met so many people. “
Proud Keith, 90, says he takes his umpiring whites everywhere (Image: © Glen Minikin)
He was 13 when he caught the cricket bug, joining his local side in North Yorkshire, before sneaking into Headingley and saw Don Bradman score an unbeaten 173 for Australia.
He sadly lost his wife to coronavirus after 59 years, who was often by his side making teas for 25 years.
Widower Keith, a retired salesman, is 6ft 4in tall and says he was often mistaken for a police officer by cricketers but had to call the real officers in during a match a few seasons ago. He said as “wonderful” as the sport is “there’s always a bit of controversy.”
“A player came up to me and started abusing me. He started off by saying you are ‘slowing the game down’. The player – not the captain. He had a real go at me. Then he said, ‘you are slow giving decisions’. Well, you don’t give a fast decision because you want to do the right thing with LBW. They don’t like LBW.
Keith umpired around the globe. Pictured here in Barbados in 2001(Image: © Glen Minikin)
“So I asked him to ‘calm down’ and he wouldn’t. So I said, under the new regulations from the ECB, I’m sending you off. He says, ‘I’m not going’.
“I said if I take the bells off those wickets, the game’s finished, and the team took him off. They escorted him off. There were two batsmen waiting to come in with their pads on, they started speaking to him. And they started kicking him in the you-knows-where and grabbing him by the throat.
“I thought, well, I’m not in a position to start trying to stop him, so I called the police. They came within five minutes with the lights on and they came up to me after us and said; ‘We thought cricket was a gentleman’s game’. I said, ‘it is’. . I reported him to the league and banned him.
Pictured here umpiring in 2001 (Image: © Glen Minikin)
“But don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some wonderful games and I’ve met a lot of smashing people. I worked for Dickie Bird for 14 years for his foundation. “
He said he even gave Dickie, the legendary umpire Dickie as out when struck by the ball while running between wickets in a charity match “Dickie was furious.”
Keith Dibb (back row – middle) pictured in North Rigton, North Yorks, aged 13, when he first caught the cricket bug(Image: Lee McLean/SWNS)
About his new role he said he will show the new umpires the ropes, making sure to still tell the players: “Let’s have a good game in a friendly spirit. “ Keith is a massive fan of the women’s game too and says it was “silly” it used to be only seen as a gentleman’s game.
“Ten years ago, I had a girl in Headingley, who was playing and they said, ‘bloody hell, there’s a woman playing’. She got four wickets. So she’s a good player. I’m all for girls now.”