Former test cricket umpire Dickie Bird swapped watching his beloved sport for a more unusual athletic pursuit in North Yorkshire – but refused to be stumped when he found the boundary was the sea.

The 77-year-old celebrated Yorkshireman joined scores of onlookers braving freezing temperatures and sleet to catch the annual Boxing Day Comic Football Match at South Bay, Scarborough, the town’s oldest surviving custom.

The festive fixture dates back to 1893 and is held to raise cash for the Fishermen & Firemens Charity Fund, which provides help for the elderly and infirm during the winter months. The charity was established to help the widows and orphans of the five Scarborough fishermen drowned at sea aboard the trawling smacks Evelyn and Maud following a storm in November 1893.

Mr Bird, who has suffered a stroke and had a pacemaker fitted, recently took part in an experiment screened on television in which he became physically and psychologically stronger after taking part in a series of challenges. Following the programme he said he was “a different man” and had regained the confidence he lost after his stroke to meet people.