Donald Bick      

Don Bick, who died from a heart attack at Ware in Hertfordshire, on January 13, 1992, aged 55, was on the Middlesex staff from 1954 to 1967, where he was happy to stay as Fred Titmus's offspinning understudy. Almost any other county would have been glad to give a player of his ability regular first-team cricket but he was not an ambitious man and preferred his family and his garden to the possibility of advancement. Early on, there were hopes that he might develop into a genuine batsman but, although he looked sound enough, he could not resist the temptation to attack too soon. In the end he had to settle for a place in the bottom half of the order and he never scored more than the entertaining 85 he made for Colonel L. C. Stevens's XI against Cambridge University at Eastbourne in 1960. His bowling was always steady, but he never developed the spin and guile that might have disturbed the best players. He twice returned figures of 5 for 22: against Yorkshire at Scarborough in 1959 and in 1965 against the University at Cambridge. That year Bick won a regular place at last, took 61 wickets and was awarded his cap. In all he made 2,221 runs in 147 matches, averaging 13.96, and took 234 wickets at 27.70. He held 35 catches. On leaving Lord's he played for Hertfordshire (1968-74) and, for a number of years, was coach at the City of London School. He was an easy-going, humorous man, remembered by team-mates for the difficulty he found in saying an unkind word about anyone, no matter what the provocation..
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack