William Shepherd (English cricketer)

William Charles Shepherd (9 August 1840 – 27 May 1919) was an English first-class cricketer active 1864–68 who played for Surrey. He was born in Kennington; died in Tooting. In 1868 he played and toured with the Australian Aboriginal Cricket team and later between 1872-1895 he was the Dulwich College cricket professional (coach and groundsman).

Surrey County Cricket Club career

He was a left-hand batsman and left-arm medium bowler, with his first-class statistics in the table below.

Batting averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	Ct	St
First-class	13	17	6	56	18	5.09	0	0	8	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Econ	SR	5w	10
First-class	13	1733	709	38	8/49	18.65	2.45	45.6	2	0

Australian Aboriginal Cricket Tour of England 1868

After being referred to Charles Lawrence by Surrey Secretary William Burrup, at the annual dinner of the Surrey Club, Shepherd was engaged to travel with the team as umpire, assistant and emergency player-captain on the Australian Aboriginal cricket team on their tour of England in 1868. He represented the Aborigines on seven occasions, one as captain, but with very moderate success, scoring 66 runs at an average of 11 and taking 6 wickets at an average of 20.7. To judge from his reminiscences, however, Shepherd enjoyed his association with the players.

Final years

Shepherd frequented the Oval in his declining years, retailing cricketing memories to patient bystanders. His nostalgic and not always accurate version of the Aboriginal tour was published in 1919, the year of his death.