Book excerpt: Beginning with an evocative account of David Sheperd’s North Devon childhood, this book covers his entire cricket career, beginning with playing for Devon in the minor Counties League before joining Gloucester in 1965. He retired in 1979 and became an umpire the following year. His time as an umpire has seen cricket become dominated by money, the introduction of floodlit games and of the controversial electronic "third umpire," video evidence, and world-wide match fixing scandals. The book contains informed opinions on all these aspects of cricket past, present, and future, as well as a wealth of fascinating and amusing anecdotes from a man who has stayed at the center of the game for nearly 40 years, never losing his love of the game or his sense of humor.