Thomas Frederick 'Tom' Shepherd (born 5 December 1889 at Headington Quarry

Headington Quarry

Headington Quarry is a residential district of Oxford, England, located east of Headington and west of Risinghurst, just inside the Oxford ring road in the east of the city. To the south is Wood Farm. Today the district is also known colloquially as "Quarry"...

, Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

; died 13 February 1957 at Norbiton

Norbiton

Norbiton is a place in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London. It lies approximately east of Kingston upon Thames's town centre, and from Charing Cross. Its main landmarks include Kingston Hospital and Kingsmeadow football stadium, which is currently used for the home matches of both...

, Kingston upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. He was primarily a right-handed batsman, but was also a useful right-arm medium pace bowler and a slip fielder.

He played for Surrey from 1919 to 1932, being a regular in the first team from 1921 onwards following an outstanding season for the second eleven (i.e. the reserve side) in 1920 (scoring 709 runs at 101.28 and taking 38 wickets at 15.50). In all first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 he scored 18,719 runs at an average of 39.82, including 42 centuries. His highest score was 277* against Gloucestershire at The Oval

The Oval

The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...

 in 1927, made in just four and three-quarter hours, he and Andy Ducat

Andy Ducat

Andrew Ducat was an England and Surrey cricketer and an England footballer, being one of an elite group to have represented their country in both sports.-Cricket career:...

 adding 289 in two and three-quarter hours for the fourth wicket. That season he scored 2,145 runs at 55.00. He reached his thousand runs for the season in eleven successive years from 1921 to 1931. He had a fine temperament, and was capable of attacking or defending as the situation demanded. His pull and his offside shots were noted for their power.

He took 445 wickets at an average of 30.73, his best innings figures being 6/78. He held 275 catches.

He appeared in Test Trial matches and for the Players against the Gentlemen

Gentlemen v Players

The Gentlemen v Players game was a first-class cricket match that was generally played on an annual basis between one team consisting of amateurs and one of professionals . The first two games took place in 1806 but the fixture was not revived until 1819. It was more or less annual thereafter...

, but was never selected for a Test

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

. After retiring from Surrey, he was head groundsman and coach for Wandgas Cricket Club until his death.