Brian Brain died on November 1, 2023, aged 83. Across a long first-class career for Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, he took 824 wickets in first-class cricket and 290 in the List A format. He was remembered in the 2024 Wisden Almanack.
BRAIN, BRIAN MAURICE, who died on November 1, aged 83, was a hard-working, economical seamer who took more than 800 first-class wickets, plus nearly 300 in one-day games. “He was a very deceptive bowler,” said his Worcestershire team-mate Paul Pridgeon. “He had a whippy action, and was quicker than you thought.” Brain joined the staff at New Road from the nearby King’s School in 1959, but Worcestershire had plenty of new-ball bowlers, with both Jack Flavell and Len Coldwell about to become Test players. Brain left for a while but, on rejoining the club, earned a run of appearances after some good performances for the Second XI. “He should have played for England,” wrote county team-mate Basil D’Oliveira, “but he was overshadowed a little by Flavell and Coldwell, and didn’t get a kick up the backside when he deserved one. Sometimes he lacked a little commitment, as if he felt it was really a batsman’s game.”
When the club won the Championship for the first time, in 1964, Brain played a useful back-up role, with 31 wickets at 24, and added 44 at 21 as they retained the title in 1965. For much of his time, he was vying for a place with his friend Bob Carter. “We had this wonderful love–hate relationship,” Carter told the writer Stephen Chalke.“When we were bowling together, it was good. ‘He’s got a wicket,’ I’d be thinking. ‘Come on, I’ve got to get another one.’ And he’d be thinking the same down the other end.”
Tall and wiry, Brain finally secured a regular spot in 1969, taking 73 wickets, and added 84 in both 1973 and 1974, when Worcestershire won another Championship. But despite a career-best 8-85 against Essex at New Road the following season, he was one of several players released in a clear-out. Brain was 35, but moved down the road to Bristol, where he added 316 wickets in six seasons. “Brian was a definite case of Gloucestershire’s gain and Worcestershire’s loss,” said David Graveney. “His bowling in all forms was economical and penetrative, and he was remarkably injury-free.”
In 1977, Brain took 7-51 against the Australians at Bristol. “The wicket was grassy and uneven,” recalled their captain, Greg Chappell. “One ball might be ankle-height, and the next flying past the nose. Brian fixed us up very swiftly with his fast-medium variations. It was the Saturday of the FA Cup final, and I think both sides were rather keen to see the football.” The conditions suited the Aussies as well: Max Walker took 7-19 as Gloucestershire were bundled out for 63 on the way to a two-day defeat. Brain played a few matches for Shropshire in 1982. Two years earlier, he had set down his thoughts on the county season in an entertaining book, Another Day, Another Match, one of the first – and best – examples of the player-diary genre. In Wisden, John Arlott called it “a fresh and refreshing viewpoint”.
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