4 JUNE 2005, Page 22

From Robert Triggs Sir: It is greatly to the credit

of the late Cardinal Hume that he believed in people’s freedom to buy private education. The late Bishop of Liverpool David Sheppard was much more politically correct. More than 20 years ago he attended a gathering of bishops at York Minster. During his visit, a simple request was conveyed to him from the headmaster of the York Minster Choir School to call in, if he had time, at the school and, in his capacity as a former England cricket captain, allow himself to be photographed with the boys of the First XI. What finer way to encourage cricket in schools?

The message came back: ‘Bishop Sheppard regrets but he is not in sympathy with this form of education.’

Robert Triggs

Oxford