Richard Alan Brooks, born at Edgware

Edgware

Edgware is an area in London, situated north-northwest of Charing Cross. It forms part of both the London Borough of Barnet and the London Borough of Harrow. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

, Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

 on 14 June 1943, was a cricketer

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"....

 who played 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...

 for Oxford University

Oxford University Cricket Club

Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...

 and Somerset

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...

.

A lower-order right-handed batsman and wicketkeeper, Brooks won a Blue

University Sporting Blue

A Blue is an award earned by sportsmen and women at a university and some schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of Blues began at Oxford and Cambridge Universities...

 for cricket in 1967, and was then offered a contract with Somerset, the county having just parted company with its regular wicketkeeper Geoff Clayton

Geoff Clayton

Geoffrey Clayton, born 3 February 1938 at Mossley, Lancashire, played first-class and List A cricket for Lancashire and Somerset between 1959 and 1967. He was a lower-order batsman and a wicketkeeper....

. Brooks kept wicket tidily for Somerset for the whole of the 1968 season, but at the end of it he was offered a teaching post 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...

and gave up the first-class game.