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  3. July
  4. 31
  5. Bill Brown (cricketer)

Births on July 31

Bill Brown (cricketer)
1912Jul, 31

Bill Brown (cricketer)

Bill Brown, Australian cricketer (d. 2008)
William Alfred Brown, (31 July 1912 – 16 March 2008) was an Australian cricketer who played 22 Test matches between 1934 and 1948, captaining his country in one Test. A right-handed opening batsman, his partnership with Jack Fingleton in the 1930s is regarded as one of the finest in Australian Test history. After the interruption of World War II, Brown was a member of the team dubbed "The Invincibles", who toured England in 1948 without defeat under the leadership of Don Bradman. In a match in November 1947, Brown was the unwitting victim of the first instance of "Mankading".

Raised in New South Wales, Brown initially struggled in both work and cricket, before gradually rising through the cricket ranks. He made his first-class debut for New South Wales in the 1932–33 season and forced his way into the national side during the 1934 tour of England. When long-term openers Bill Ponsford and Bill Woodfull retired at the end of the tour, Brown and his state opening partner Fingleton took over. After poor form made his selection for the 1938 tour of England controversial, Brown responded with a total of 1,854 runs, including an unbeaten 206 that saved Australia from defeat in the Second Test, and was honoured as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year.

The outbreak of the Second World War cost Brown his peak years, which he spent in the Royal Australian Air Force. Cricket resumed in 1945–46 and Brown, in Bradman's absence, captained an Australian eleven in a match that was retrospectively awarded Test status. Brown missed the entirety of the following season because of injury. Upon his return, he was unable to repeat his previous success and was ousted from the opening positions by Arthur Morris and Sid Barnes. Selected for the Invincibles tour, he performed reasonably well in the tour matches but, with Morris and Barnes entrenched as openers, he batted out of position in the middle order during the first two Tests. He struggled and was dropped from the Test team, never to return. Upon returning to Australia, Brown continued playing for Queensland until the end of the 1949–50 season.

In retirement, Brown briefly served as a Test selector and sold cars and, later, sports goods. In 2000, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to cricket. At the time of his death in 2008, he was Australia's oldest Test cricketer.

References

  • Bill Brown (cricketer)

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Events on 1912

  • 6Mar

    Airship

    Italo-Turkish War: Italian forces become the first to use airships in war, as two dirigibles drop bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet.
  • 15Apr

    Sinking of the RMS Titanic

    The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. Only 710 of 2,227 passengers and crew on board survive.
  • 14Oct

    Theodore Roosevelt

    While campaigning in Milwaukee, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carries out his scheduled public speech.
  • 17Oct

    First Balkan War

    Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.
  • 26Oct

    Thessaloniki

    First Balkan War: The Ottoman occupied city of Thessaloniki, is liberated and unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron saint Demetrius. On the same day, Serbian troops captured Skopje.

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