Francis Browne (cricketer)

Canon Francis Bernard Ross Browne (28 July 1899 – 11 March 1970) was an English cricketer/bowler, schoolteacher and clergyman.

Francis Ross Browne
Personal information
Full nameFrancis Bernard Ross Browne
Born(1899-07-28)28 July 1899
Eastbourne, Sussex, England
Died11 March 1970(1970-03-11) (aged 70)
Pewsey, Wiltshire, England
NicknameTishy
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast-medium
RelationsCyril Browne (brother) Christopher Ross Browne (son) "Mick" Ross Browne (son)
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1919 to 1932Sussex
1921 to 1922Cambridge University
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 75
Runs scored 333
Batting average 5.74
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 26 not out
Balls bowled 13,373
Wickets 252
Bowling average 20.72
5 wickets in innings 15
10 wickets in match 1
Best bowling 8/39
Catches/stumpings 34/0
Source: Cricinfo, 9 January 2016

Cricket career

Browne attended Eastbourne College, where he led the bowling in the First XI.[1] He underwent military training at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, towards the end of World War I, and went up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, after the war.

Despite a bowling action which Wisden described as "a weird delivery that defies description" in which "he appeared to cross his legs and deliver the ball off the wrong foot", and which earned him the nickname "Tishy" after a racehorse with a strange gait,[1] he was a successful bowler in first-class cricket from 1919 to 1932. He played for Cambridge University in 1921 and 1922, taking 68 wickets at an average of 14.44, with a best performance of 3 for 34 and 6 for 27 in a victory over Warwickshire in 1922.[2]

He played as an amateur for Sussex from 1919 to 1932, usually in July and August during the school holidays. His best figures for Sussex were 3 for 17 and 7 for 62 in a narrow loss to Yorkshire in 1925.[3] In all first-class cricket his best innings figures were 8 for 39 for H. D. G. Leveson-Gower's XI against Minor Counties in 1924.[4]

He usually batted at number 11 and scored more than 13 runs in an innings only twice in his career: in the match against Lancashire in 1928 he made 14 not out and 26 not out.[5]

Later career

When he left Cambridge, Browne became a schoolmaster at St Andrew's prep school in Eastbourne, where he became joint headmaster. He was later rural dean at Firle and Beddingham in Sussex.[6]

gollark: Oh, or fake faking faking your death.
gollark: Just *pretend* to fake your death.
gollark: No, that would be really deathing.
gollark: What if you fake faking your death?
gollark: What if you fake your own death so you can claim you're suffering trauma and don't have to study?

References
  1. Wisden 1971, pp. 1023-24.
  2. "Cambridge University v Warwickshire 1922". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  3. "Yorkshire v Sussex 1925". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  4. "HDG Leveson-Gower's XI v Minor Counties 1925". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  5. "Sussex v Lancashire 1928". CricketArchive. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  6. Michael Partridge, "The Browne Families of Eastbourne", Eastbourne Local Historian, Spring 2011, p. 13.
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