Octogenarian cricket lover and Fareham & Crofton grounds stalwart Tony ‘Bomber’ Brown has died after a long and courageous battle against cancer. He was 82.
The life of Mr Brown, who had been actively involved with the Bath Lane club for over 50 years and was a much respected and long standing past vice-chairman of the Hampshire League, is to be celebrated at Portchester Crematorium on Thursday afternoon (April 20) at 2.30pm and afterwards in a marquee at the cricket club.
In May 2015, he was named as one of Fareham Borough Council’s Citizen’s of the Year in recognition of over half a century of service to the town club as a player, administrator and for 20 years groundsman.
He is pictured with his inscribed medallion, sitting on his favourite motor roller at the ground.
Mr Brown joined Fareham as an off-spin all-rounder in 1962 while still a serving Royal Navy officer.
He spent 29 years in the RN, serving on 15 different ships or shore establishments – with his cricket bag never far away !
He recalled: “We played in the Far East, the Gulf, the Mediterranean and in numerous other ports in and around the African coast.
“Goodness knows how many games of cricket we played on our travels around the globe, but it was a good many.”
But it wasn’t all cricket and travel – in 1960 Mr Brown, who left the Senior Service as a Warrant Officer First Class, was part of the Royal Navy’s fishery protection in the so-called Cod War, in the freezing cold Icelandic waters.
He laughed: “I was chilly work. Bitterly cold, in fact. Did I I yearn for my long sleeved cricket sweaters then ?”
Tony Brown was Fareham’s second team captain for many years before assuming the role as club chairman.
“I left the Royal Navy in 1979, but continued to play regularly until 1986, Saturdays, Sundays, midweek evenings, you name it – and we had a lot of fun, both on and off the field,” he smiled.
He played his cricket competitively but in the correct and proper manner, always enjoying a beer or two after the match. Appropriately, the bar in Fareham & Crofton’s clubhouse is named in his honour.
Tony always worked hard to make the younger members of the Fareham club feel welcome and took a great interest in their development by sharing his wisdom, encouragement and vast knowledge of the game.
After his long naval service, he held managerial roles at the tennis and squash clubs at Alverstoke and Winchester, where his expertise in organising social events came to the fore.
But away from his family, cricket was his first love. During and long after his retirement from the Royal Navy, Tony devoted a large chunk of his life to the game, spending countless hours at Bath Lane, where he took up groundsmanship on a voluntary basis in 1995.
At Fareham, though, we became much more than a groundsman, supervising numerous enhancements to the ground, including the laying of two new cricket squares and practice nets, besides taking a lead role in the virtual rebuilding of the 100-year old pavilion.
As his pitch preparation skills matured, so he gradually became an unpaid grounds advisor to the Hampshire Cricket League, driving many miles and spending numerous hours helping and encouraging countless clubs to improve their pitches and outfields.
In a tribute, Hampshire Cricket Board chairman John Wolfe said: “Board members and the Development Team all valued Tony as a great contributor.
“He just got on with doing things that needed to be done without any fuss or thought of personal reward.
“Although his work with the Board was mainly on issues concerning ground standards , ground maintenance, and development of groundsmen, his views on all cricket matters were widely respected'.
Away from his grounds work, Tony Brown was a member of the HL management committee for over 20 years and was one of the main instigators in organising the Hampshire League, Combination and New Forest Leagues to merge and form what is now the biggest recreational competition of its type in the UK - no small task as it involved 196 teams !
Tony Brown was a “doer” and generously devoted countless hours of his time helping others, in particular clubs flung far and wide across the Hampshire League spectrum.
Cricket, Fareham in particular, has lost a real friend and will say a sad farewell to a real local legend of the game on Thursday afternoon.
The life of Mr Brown, who had been actively involved with the Bath Lane club for over 50 years and was a much respected and long standing past vice-chairman of the Hampshire League, is to be celebrated at Portchester Crematorium on Thursday afternoon (April 20) at 2.30pm and afterwards in a marquee at the cricket club.
In May 2015, he was named as one of Fareham Borough Council’s Citizen’s of the Year in recognition of over half a century of service to the town club as a player, administrator and for 20 years groundsman.
He is pictured with his inscribed medallion, sitting on his favourite motor roller at the ground.
Mr Brown joined Fareham as an off-spin all-rounder in 1962 while still a serving Royal Navy officer.
He spent 29 years in the RN, serving on 15 different ships or shore establishments – with his cricket bag never far away !
He recalled: “We played in the Far East, the Gulf, the Mediterranean and in numerous other ports in and around the African coast.
“Goodness knows how many games of cricket we played on our travels around the globe, but it was a good many.”
But it wasn’t all cricket and travel – in 1960 Mr Brown, who left the Senior Service as a Warrant Officer First Class, was part of the Royal Navy’s fishery protection in the so-called Cod War, in the freezing cold Icelandic waters.
He laughed: “I was chilly work. Bitterly cold, in fact. Did I I yearn for my long sleeved cricket sweaters then ?”
Tony Brown was Fareham’s second team captain for many years before assuming the role as club chairman.
“I left the Royal Navy in 1979, but continued to play regularly until 1986, Saturdays, Sundays, midweek evenings, you name it – and we had a lot of fun, both on and off the field,” he smiled.
He played his cricket competitively but in the correct and proper manner, always enjoying a beer or two after the match. Appropriately, the bar in Fareham & Crofton’s clubhouse is named in his honour.
Tony always worked hard to make the younger members of the Fareham club feel welcome and took a great interest in their development by sharing his wisdom, encouragement and vast knowledge of the game.
After his long naval service, he held managerial roles at the tennis and squash clubs at Alverstoke and Winchester, where his expertise in organising social events came to the fore.
But away from his family, cricket was his first love. During and long after his retirement from the Royal Navy, Tony devoted a large chunk of his life to the game, spending countless hours at Bath Lane, where he took up groundsmanship on a voluntary basis in 1995.
At Fareham, though, we became much more than a groundsman, supervising numerous enhancements to the ground, including the laying of two new cricket squares and practice nets, besides taking a lead role in the virtual rebuilding of the 100-year old pavilion.
As his pitch preparation skills matured, so he gradually became an unpaid grounds advisor to the Hampshire Cricket League, driving many miles and spending numerous hours helping and encouraging countless clubs to improve their pitches and outfields.
In a tribute, Hampshire Cricket Board chairman John Wolfe said: “Board members and the Development Team all valued Tony as a great contributor.
“He just got on with doing things that needed to be done without any fuss or thought of personal reward.
“Although his work with the Board was mainly on issues concerning ground standards , ground maintenance, and development of groundsmen, his views on all cricket matters were widely respected'.
Away from his grounds work, Tony Brown was a member of the HL management committee for over 20 years and was one of the main instigators in organising the Hampshire League, Combination and New Forest Leagues to merge and form what is now the biggest recreational competition of its type in the UK - no small task as it involved 196 teams !
Tony Brown was a “doer” and generously devoted countless hours of his time helping others, in particular clubs flung far and wide across the Hampshire League spectrum.
Cricket, Fareham in particular, has lost a real friend and will say a sad farewell to a real local legend of the game on Thursday afternoon.
