Neil Terence O'Brien (born 9 March 1945) is a former English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. O'Brien was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who bowled right-arm

medium pace Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is a type of bowling in cricket, in which the ball is delivered at high speed. The fastest bowlers bowl the ball at over . Practitioners of fast bowling are known as fast bowlers or quicks. Also ...

. He was born in

Heaton Moor Heaton Moor is a suburb of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It is one of the Four Heatons and borders Heaton Chapel, Heaton Norris and Heaton Mersey. Heaton Moor has Victorian housing, built between 1852 and 1892, along affluent tree ...

, Lancashire. O'Brien made his debut for

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

in the 1970

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship or National County 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 counties (previously ca ...

against the Yorkshire Second XI. Prior to playing for Cheshire O'Brien had represented Lancashire County Cricket Club at Colt and Second team level. 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 Cheshire from 1970 to 1991, making 194 Minor Counties Championship appearances and 23

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

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, 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 competit ...

debut for Cheshire against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

in the 1981 NatWest Trophy. He made a further 8 List A appearances for the county, the last of which came against Hampshire in the

1989 NatWest Trophy The 1989 NatWest Trophy was the 9th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 28 June and 2 September 1989. The tournament was won by Warwickshire who defeated Middlesex by 4 wickets in the ...

. In his 9 List A appearances for Cheshire, O'Brien scored 134 runs at an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

of 14.88, with a high score of 28. With the ball, he took 2 wickets which came at an expensive

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 139.00, with best figures of 1/16. During his career he also played for an assortment of Minor counties teams. It was for Minor Counties East that he made his overall List A debut for, which came against

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in the

1977 Benson & Hedges Cup The 1977 Benson & Hedges Cup was the sixth edition of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup. The competition was won by Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Fixtures and results Group stage Group A Group B Group C Group ...

. He went on to make 7 further List A appearances for Minor Counties East, scoring 72 runs at an average of 9.00, with a high score of 31, while with the ball he took 9 wickets at an average of 21.44, with best figures of 4/15. He made more List A appearances for

Minor Counties cricket team 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 ...

than any other, making his debut for the team against Hampshire in the 1981 Benson & Hedges Cup. He made 12 further List A appearances for the team, the last of which came against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

in the 1989 Benson & Hedges Cup. In his 13 appearances for the team, he scored 156 runs at an average of 15.60, with a high score of 51

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

. This score, which was his only fifty in List A cricket, came against

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

in the 1981 Benson & Hedges Cup. During his Benson and Hedges career O'Brien won two Man of the Match Gold Medals against Leictershire and Surrey. With the ball, he took 10 wickets at an average of 24.30, with best figures of 3/19. He also played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for the Minor Counties on two occasions. The first of these came against the touring

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in 1979, with the second coming against the touring

Sri Lankans This is a demography of the population of Sri Lanka including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the population, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Sri Lanka is an island in th ...

in 1981.O'Brien also represented The Minor Counties against Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan. He also made four List A appearances for Minor Counties North, though with limited success.O'Brien also represented Cheshire at Table Tennis and has played golf off a single figure handicap for the last 50yrs.

References

External links

Neil O'Brien
at

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Neil O'Brien
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Neil 1945 births Living people People from Heaton Moor Cricketers from Greater Manchester Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport English cricketers Cheshire cricketers Cheshire cricket captains Minor Counties cricketers 20th-century English sportsmen