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Devon chairman Roger Moylan-Jones (left) congratulates David Shepherd on his election as the county club's new president.

FORMER Test match umpire David Shepherd was voted into office as Devon CCC's new president at the annual meeting in Exeter.

   Shepherd, who officiated in nearly 100 Test matches and twice as many one-day internationals, including three World Cup finals, retired from the Elite umpiring panel at the end of last season.

   His cricket career started in Devon back in 1959 when he made the first of more than 50 appearances for the county of his birth in the Minor Counties Championship.

   Subsequently, Shepherd played for Gloucestershire from 1964-79, making a century on his First Class debut, and become an umpire in 1980.

   The Devon presidency became available following the resignation of 81-year-old Derek Cole, who died days later on April 7 2006.

   Cole moved to Wiltshire last year to be closer to his family and felt he could no longer be an active president. He suggested Shepherd as his replacement, a proposal endorsed by members at the annual meeting in the boardroom at Heavitree Brewery.

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