Love at first sight

Three good old boys of summer —portly Pickwickian paragon cricket umpire, David Shepherd, took off his white coat for the final time in an international match at the Oval on Tuesday, and we shall know this morning whether nonpareil Jack Nicklaus has made the cut at St Andrews to extend by two days his cathartic farewell to golf. They bent the rules to offer Shepherd, 65 in December, next week’s momentous Ashes Test at full-dress Lord’s for his swan-song, but there is no remote drama-queen thesp in ol’ Shep, no milking the occasion like a Dickie B, and plebeian Kennington he said, was good enough for him. Nicklaus was 65 in January, and the Masters at Augusta (which he won six times) was to be his curtain call — till he postponed all adieus for the ancient home of golf, where he first played the Open in 1964 and hymned, ‘To come to St Andrews is to fall in love at first sight.’