Albert Brown (10 July 1911 – 27 April 1995) was an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er and

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

player. He made just one first-class appearance for

Warwickshire County Cricket Club Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Warwickshire. Its T20 team is called the Birmingham Bears. Founde ...

in 1932. As a snooker player he was twice runner-up in the

English Amateur Championship The English Amateur Championship, an annual snooker competition, is the highest-ranking and most prestigious amateur event in England. It is also the oldest and longest-running snooker tournament in the world, having been established in 1916, a ...

and reached the semi-final of the

World Snooker Championship The World Snooker Championship is the longest-running and most prestigious tournament in professional snooker. It is also the wealthiest, with total prize money in 2022 of £2,395,000, including £500,000 for the winner. First held in 1927 Wor ...

four times between 1948 and 1953.

Early life

Brown was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

on 10 July 1911. He attended a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

from the age of seven, where he started playing

English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two (one white and one yellow) and a red are used. Each player or team ...

on a three-quarter size

billiard table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that ...

and won the school championship for nine successive years. After leaving school, Brown's sporting focus was on cricket rather than cue sports, and he did not play billiards again until the age of 24, shortly after which a friend introduce him to

. A year after taking up snooker, Brown won the Midland Amateur Championship, defeating

Kingsley Kennerley Kingsley Kennerley (27 December 1913 – 26 June 1982) was an English billiards and snooker player. Career In the period from 1937 to 1940 Kennerley enjoyed considerable success as an amateur in both billiards and snooker. He won the English ...

4–0 in the final. He won the title again the following year, and after a hiatus in the championship being staged during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, completed a run of three wins. Before becoming a professional snooker player, he worked as a bus driver.

Cricket

Between snooker seasons, Brown played cricket. A

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. ...

, he was invited to play for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

after achieving hat tricks in consecutive weeks. Brown made a single first-class appearance for Warwickshire against the touring Indians at

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family a ...

in 1932. The Indians made 282 all out in their first-innings, with Brown taking the wickets of

Naoomal Jeoomal Naoomal Jeoomal Makhija (17 April 1904 – 28 July 1980) was an Indian cricketer, who was India's first opening batsman in Test cricket. Naoomal Jeoomal scored 33 and 25 opening India's innings in their first ever Test at Lord's in 1932. He ...

and Amar Singh to finish with figures of 2/61 from 22 overs. In Warwickshire's first-innings of 354 all out, Brown ended the innings

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

on a single run. He bowled 14 wicketless overs in the Indians second-innings of 344 declared and wasn't required to bat in Warwickshire's second-innings of 110/3, with the match being declared a draw. This was his only major appearance for Warwickshire. He retired from cricket after failing to recover fully from a

pulled muscle A strain is an acute or chronic soft tissue injury that occurs to a muscle, tendon, or both. The equivalent injury to a ligament is a sprain. Generally, the muscle or tendon overstretches and partially tears, under more physical stress tha ...

Snooker

He was runner-up in the

in 1940, losing 7–8 to Kennerley. The next time the tournament was held, in 1946, Brown lost 3–5 to

John Pulman Herbert John Pulman (12 December 192325 December 1998) was an English professional snooker player who was the World Snooker Champion from 1957 to 1968. He won the title at the 1957 Championship, and retained it across seven challenges from 1 ...

in the final. Both Pulman and Brown and turned professional shortly afterwards. After turning professional Brown played in a number of major events from 1947 to 1953, and reached the semi-finals of the

four times, in 1948, 1950, 1952 and 1953. He also was runner-up in the

1951/1952 News of the World Snooker Tournament The 1951/1952 News of the World Snooker Tournament was a professional snooker tournament sponsored by the ''News of the World''. The tournament was won by Sidney Smith (snooker player), Sidney Smith who won 6 of his 8 matches. He finished ahead o ...

, missing out on victory by a single frame. His last competitive appearance was in the

1954/1955 News of the World Snooker Tournament The 1954/1955 News of the World Snooker Tournament was a professional snooker tournament sponsored by the '' News of the World''. The tournament was won by Jackie Rea who won all of his 8 matches. He finished ahead of Joe Davis who won 6 matches. ...

Non-ranking event wins: (1)

* News of the World Snooker Tournament Qualifying Event – 1949/1950

Death

He died at the city of his birth on 27 April 1995.

References

External links

Albert Brown
at

ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Albert 1911 births 1995 deaths Cricketers from Birmingham, West Midlands English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers English snooker players English cricketers of 1919 to 1945