A Shipley jeweller has bowled over umpiring legend Dickie Bird by honouring him with a giant new clock at Yorkshire County Cricket Club's Headingley home.

The former Test match umpire will unveil the five-and-a-half foot diameter clock, designed and sponsored by Phillip Stoner Jewellery, on Friday during the County Championship match against Surrey which starts at Headingley today.

The huge timepiece, which cost thousands of pounds to make, will be known as the Dickie Bird Clock after being installed at Headingley's new West Stand.

The clock can be seen from throughout the ground and even from outside the stadium on Kirkstall Lane - it even illuminates automatically as the skies begin to darken.

Chris Stoner, a director of Phillip Stoner Jewellery, said: "The old clock at Headingley was looking pretty tatty - all the commentators used to take the mickey out of it - so we were delighted to be able to design and sponsor a new one named in honour of someone like Dickie Bird.

"Dickie said he's thrilled to bits with it and I'm sure we'll all feel very proud every time the TV cameras pan in on it during a Test or the big Yorkshire matches.''

And the umpire was amazed that the jeweller took time to create the clock in his honour.

"I'm so pleased, delighted and thrilled to be honoured in this way,'' Dickie said.

Yorkshire-born Mr Bird, who retired in 1998 but still goes to watch every Yorkshire match, added: "Umpires will use it to help them call the lunch and tea breaks and close of play and future Test and Yorkshire players will go by it as well.

"It means my memory will linger on at Headingley for many, many years to come which makes me feel very proud.

"The old clock did need replacing but this one's absolutely marvellous and you can see it all round the ground.

"I've got so many happy memories of Headingley - I umpired my first Test, England against New Zealand, there in 1973. It's just such an honour for my services to cricket to be honoured in this way by the club at a ground that's so steeped in history.''

Finished in a black steel case the two-sided clock, which automatically illuminates when the light begins to fail, took a team of specialists from the Leeds-based clockmakers William Potts hundreds of man hours to manufacture and instal.

Yorkshire's commercial director Tony Panaro said: "We've looked for several months for an opportunity to incorporate a timepiece in the Headingley development and are extremely grateful to Phillip Stoner Jewellery for agreeing to sponsor this piece of history named after the world's most famous umpire.''

As reported in the Telegraph & Argus earlier this month Phillip Stoner Jewellery - whose customers have included pop legend Michael Jackson - has teamed up with the county club to launch a range of commemorative Yorkshire cricket-based gems, gifts and memorabilia.