Mervyn Edward William Brooker (24 March 1954 – 23 January 2019) was an English cricketer and school headmaster.

Early life

Mervyn Brooker was born in

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011, it had a ...

, Staffordshire. He attended

Lancaster Royal Grammar School Lancaster Royal Grammar School (LRGS) is a selective grammar school (day and boarding) for boys aged 11–18 in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. Old students belong to The Old Lancastrians. The school's sixth form opened to girls in 2019. LRGS i ...

and

Burnley Grammar School Burnley Grammar School was latterly, a state-funded selective boys grammar School, situated in Byron Street in Burnley, England. However, during its long history, it moved between a number of sites in the town. History In 1552, on the order of ...

, before reading

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

.BROOKER, Mervyn Edward William
''Who's Who 2014'', A & C Black, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014

Cricket

Brooker was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowled right-arm

medium pace 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''. T ...

. Brooker made his first-class debut for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

in 1974. He had 13 further first-class appearances for the university, the last of which came against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1976. He took 24 wickets in his 14 first-class matches for the university, at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 44.16, with best figures of 4/58. During this time, he also made a single first-class appearance for a combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team against the touring

West Indians A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

. He took the wicket of

Roy Fredericks Roy Clifton Fredericks (11 November 1942 – 5 September 2000) was a West Indian cricketer who played Test cricket from 1968 to 1977. He was an opening batsman for the West Indies in both Test cricket and one day cricket, and made 4334 Test run ...

in this match, while with the bat he was dismissed for 7 runs by

Michael Holding Michael Anthony Holding (born 16 February 1954) is a Jamaican former cricketer and commentator who played for the West Indies cricket team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pace bowlers in cricket history, he was nicknamed "Whispering Dea ...

. He made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut for the university in the 1974 Benson & Hedges Cup, with Brooker making 2 appearances in that competition against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. Later in 1976, he played 4 List A matches for the Combined Universities in the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

. In his 4 matches for the Combined Universities, he took 4 wickets at an average of 23.75, with best figures of 3/44. While studying at Cambridge University, he made his debut for

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

against

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

in the 1976

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

. He played

Minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for Cambridgeshire from 1976 to 1980, making 16 Minor Counties Championship appearances. He joined his native

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

in 1982, making his debut for the county against

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

in the Minor Counties Championship. He played Minor counties cricket for Staffordshire in 1982 and 1986, making 26 Minor Counties Championship appearances and 3

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

appearances. He made his only List A appearance for Staffordshire against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

in the

1984 NatWest Trophy The 1984 NatWest Trophy was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 4 July and 1 September 1984. The fourth NatWest Trophy tournament, it was won by Middlesex who defeated Kent by 4 wickets in the final at Lord ...

. In this match, he made 14 unbeaten runs, while with the ball he bowled 12 wicket-less overs for the cost of 19 runs.

Schoolmaster

Brooker taught at various English schools including

King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys , established = , closed = , type = Grammar school;Academy , president = , head_label = Headteacher , head = Russell Bowen , r_head_l ...

where he was

headmaster A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the teacher, staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school ...

1995–2002. He was headmaster of

Bolton School Bolton School is an independent day school in Bolton, Greater Manchester. It comprises a co-educational nursery, co-educational infant school (ages 3–7), single sex junior schools (ages 7–11) and single sex senior schools including sixth fo ...

Boys' Division 2003–08 and education adviser to the King Edward Foundation 2007–11.

Death

After a short and sudden illness, Brooker died on 23 January 2019 from complications arising from contracting meningitis. He is survived by his wife Brigid and their two daughters.

References

External links

Mervyn Brooker
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 ...

Mervyn Brooker
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooker, Mervyn Edward William 1954 births 2019 deaths Sportspeople from Burton upon Trent People educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School People educated at Burnley Grammar School Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Cambridgeshire cricketers Staffordshire cricketers Schoolteachers from Staffordshire Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricketers British Universities cricketers Neurological disease deaths in the United Kingdom Deaths from meningitis Cricketers from Staffordshire