Ben Brocklehurst
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Gilbert Brocklehurst (18 February 1922 - 17 June 2007) was an English cricketer
and publisher.
, Norfolk
. His father was a Canadian
ranch
er. He was educated at Bradfield College
, where he played football, tennis, squash and athletics for the school, and was captain of cricket. He was Victor Ludorum
at the public school sports event held at White City
in 1938, winning the discus and the high jump. During the Second World War, he served initially in the 10th (Home Defence) Battalion of The Devonshire Regiment
, spending time on coastal defence
s in East Anglia
. He was wounded by shrapnel during the Bristol Blitz
, and was commissioned as an officer in The Royal Berkshire Regiment before transferring to the Indian Army
. He joined the Frontier Force Rifles, posted to Wana
on the North West Frontier. He was attacked by a bear in Kashmir
, and then volunteered for service in Burma, where he commanded a Pashtun
company in the 4th Battalion of the 12th Frontier Force Regiment
in 17th Division, a reconnaissance unit. He was mentioned in dispatches
and promoted to acting lieutenant colonel
, taking charge of thousands of Japan
ese prisoners.
He returned to England and became a farmer in Berkshire for eight years. A right-handed batsman, he represented Somerset County Cricket Club
in 64 first-class cricket
matches between 1952 and 1954. He captained Somerset in 1953 and 1954, and he was one of the last amateur captains in county cricket
. His captaincy did not change the fortunes of the side: they came bottom in the County Championship
in the year before he was appointed, and remained bottom in both of his years in charge, losing 37 of the 56 games they played under his leadership. He was also relatively unsuccessful on a personal level, scoring 1,671 runs in 116 innings in first-class cricket, at a batting average
of 15.61. Nevertheless, he also played cricket for a number of clubs, including the MCC
, I Zingari
, Free Foresters, Hampshire Hogs and Bradfield Waifs.
After farming, he turned to publishing, first working on Country Life
. He joined the publishing company Mercury House
, and persuaded his employer to buy the loss-making cricket magazine The Cricketer
. He bought the magazine from his employer in 1972 and was left to run it with his wife Belinda. He merged the magazine with Playfair Cricket Monthly
in 1973, and it thrived under his ownership. Under the stewardship of his youngest son Tim, The Cricketer went online in 1996 and formed a partnership with cricinfo
in 1997. It was bought by Sir Paul Getty in 2003 and amalgamated with Wisden Cricket Monthly
to form The Wisden Cricketer
.
He was involved with the establishment of The Cricketer Cup in 1967, an annual competition contested by the "old boys" of public schools
, and the National Village Knockout competition in 1972. He also had the idea to stage a Cricket World Cup
years before the first such event was staged. His approach to the Marylebone Cricket Club
about it, in 1974, did not progress because it was 'too commercial'. He also sat on the council of the Lord's Taverners
. He was also an amateur artist.
He married twice, first to Mary Wynn in 1947; they had a son and a daughter. He married Belinda Bristowe in 1962; they had two sons. He was survived by his second wife, and three sons and a daughter. His daughter Charmaine married the cricketer Richard Hutton, son of Sir Len Hutton. Their sons, Ben
and Ollie
have both played first-class cricket; Ben was the captain of Middlesex
in 2005 and 2006. He died in Tunbridge Wells.
Cricketer
A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....
and publisher.
Biography
Brocklehurst was born at Knapton Hall, in KnaptonKnapton
Knapton is a village and a civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is south-east of Cromer, north-east of Norwich and north-east of London. The village lies north-east of the A149 between Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth. The nearest railway station is at North Walsham for the...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. His father was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
er. He was educated at Bradfield College
Bradfield College
Bradfield College is a coeducational independent school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in 1850 by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
, where he played football, tennis, squash and athletics for the school, and was captain of cricket. He was Victor Ludorum
Victor Ludorum
Victor Ludorum is Latin for "the winner of the games." It is usually a trophy presented to the most successful team, club, or competitor at a sports event. It is common at rowing regattas and was traditional at some British public school sports days...
at the public school sports event held at White City
White City Stadium
White City Stadium was built in White City, London, for the 1908 Summer Olympics, often seen as the precursor to the modern seater stadium and noted for hosting the finish of the first modern distance marathon. It also hosted speedway and a match at the 1966 World Cup, before the stadium was...
in 1938, winning the discus and the high jump. During the Second World War, he served initially in the 10th (Home Defence) Battalion of The Devonshire Regiment
The Devonshire Regiment
The Devonshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army which served under various titles from 1685 to 1958. Its lineage is continued today by The Rifles.-Origin and titles:...
, spending time on coastal defence
Coastal defence and fortification
Coastal defence , Coastal defense and Coastal fortification are measures taken to provide protection against attack by military and naval forces at or near the shoreline...
s in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
. He was wounded by shrapnel during the Bristol Blitz
Bristol Blitz
Bristol was the fifth most heavily bombed British city of World War II. The presence of Bristol Harbour and the Bristol Aeroplane Company made it a target for bombing by the Nazi German Luftwaffe who were able to trace a course up the River Avon from Avonmouth using reflected moonlight on the...
, and was commissioned as an officer in The Royal Berkshire Regiment before transferring to the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
. He joined the Frontier Force Rifles, posted to Wana
Wana
Wana is the largest town of South Waziristan Agency in Pakistan's FATA . It is the summer headquarters for the Agency's administration, Tank located in neighbouring Tank District being the winter HQ-Colonial history:...
on the North West Frontier. He was attacked by a bear in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, and then volunteered for service in Burma, where he commanded a Pashtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
company in the 4th Battalion of the 12th Frontier Force Regiment
12th Frontier Force Regiment
The 12th Frontier Force Regiment was part of the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1922. It consisted of five regular battalions; numbered 1 to 5 and the 10th Battalion. During the Second World War a further ten battalions were raised. In 1945 the prenomial "12th" was dropped when the British...
in 17th Division, a reconnaissance unit. He was mentioned in dispatches
Mentioned in Dispatches
A soldier Mentioned in Despatches is one whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which is described the soldier's gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy.In a number of countries, a soldier's name must be mentioned in...
and promoted to acting lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
, taking charge of thousands of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese prisoners.
He returned to England and became a farmer in Berkshire for eight years. A right-handed batsman, he represented Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
in 64 first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
matches between 1952 and 1954. He captained Somerset in 1953 and 1954, and he was one of the last amateur captains in county cricket
County cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
. His captaincy did not change the fortunes of the side: they came bottom in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
in the year before he was appointed, and remained bottom in both of his years in charge, losing 37 of the 56 games they played under his leadership. He was also relatively unsuccessful on a personal level, scoring 1,671 runs in 116 innings in first-class cricket, at a batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
of 15.61. Nevertheless, he also played cricket for a number of clubs, including the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
, I Zingari
I Zingari
I Zingari are English and Australian amateur cricket clubs.-History:...
, Free Foresters, Hampshire Hogs and Bradfield Waifs.
After farming, he turned to publishing, first working on Country Life
Country Life (magazine)
Country Life is a British weekly magazine, based in London at 110 Southwark Street, and owned by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.- Topics :The magazine covers the pleasures and joys of rural life, as well as the concerns of rural people...
. He joined the publishing company Mercury House
Mercury House (publishers)
Mercury House, a project of Words Given Wings Literary Arts Project, a 501 nonprofit corporation, is an independent trade book publishing company, based in San Francisco, California. The press is distributed by Perseus Books Group and Small Press Distribution.The press has published over 130 titles...
, and persuaded his employer to buy the loss-making cricket magazine The Cricketer
The Cricketer
The Cricketer was an English cricket magazine published between 1921 and 2003 when it was merged with Wisden Cricket Monthly and relaunched as The Wisden Cricketer....
. He bought the magazine from his employer in 1972 and was left to run it with his wife Belinda. He merged the magazine with Playfair Cricket Monthly
Playfair Cricket Monthly
Playfair Cricket Monthly was a monthly British cricket magazine that ran from May, 1960 to April, 1973, when it was absorbed by The Cricketer. Its comprehensive statistical content was taken on by The Cricketer Quarterly. It was edited by Gordon Ross and - until his death in 1962 - Roy Webber...
in 1973, and it thrived under his ownership. Under the stewardship of his youngest son Tim, The Cricketer went online in 1996 and formed a partnership with cricinfo
Cricinfo
ESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...
in 1997. It was bought by Sir Paul Getty in 2003 and amalgamated with Wisden Cricket Monthly
Wisden Cricket Monthly
Wisden Cricket Monthly was a cricket magazine that ran from June 1979 to September 2003.The driving force behind the creation of WCM was its first editor, David Frith, formerly an editor of its rival, The Cricketer. At first, it operated under the Wisden name using license from John Wisden & Co;...
to form The Wisden Cricketer
The Wisden Cricketer
The Wisden Cricketer is the world's best-selling monthly cricket magazine.It was created in 2003 by a merger between The Cricketer magazine and Wisden Cricket Monthly....
.
He was involved with the establishment of The Cricketer Cup in 1967, an annual competition contested by the "old boys" of public schools
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
, and the National Village Knockout competition in 1972. He also had the idea to stage a Cricket World Cup
Cricket World Cup
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council , with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years...
years before the first such event was staged. His approach to the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
about it, in 1974, did not progress because it was 'too commercial'. He also sat on the council of the Lord's Taverners
Lord's Taverners
The Lord’s Taverners is a thriving club, the official charity for recreational cricket and the UK’s leading youth cricket and disability sports charity whose objective is to 'give young people, particularly those with special needs, a sporting chance'.The Lord’s Taverners was founded in 1950 by a...
. He was also an amateur artist.
He married twice, first to Mary Wynn in 1947; they had a son and a daughter. He married Belinda Bristowe in 1962; they had two sons. He was survived by his second wife, and three sons and a daughter. His daughter Charmaine married the cricketer Richard Hutton, son of Sir Len Hutton. Their sons, Ben
Ben Hutton
Benjamin Leonard Hutton , is a retired English cricketer.-Early life:Ben Hutton was educated at Radley and Durham University for whom he opened the innings with the current England captain Andrew Strauss....
and Ollie
Oliver Hutton
Oliver Richard Hutton is an English cricketer.Ollie Hutton has represented Middlesex 2nd XI, Richmond Cricket Club and the Oxford University Centre of Cricketing Excellence as a left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler.His grandfathers Ben Brocklehurst, Sir Leonard Hutton, father...
have both played first-class cricket; Ben was the captain of Middlesex
Middlesex County Cricket Club
Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Middlesex. It was announced in February 2009 that Middlesex changed their limited overs name from the Middlesex Crusaders, to the...
in 2005 and 2006. He died in Tunbridge Wells.