Brown Jack Image 8 Yorkshire 1896

Description

Driffield, Yorkshire born Jack Brown made his first class debut for Yorkshire in 1889. He formed a successful opening partnership with John Tunnicliffe and from 1895 to 1903 he passed 1,000 runs each season.

Brown’s form in 1894 was such to earn him both a mention as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1895, and a Test debut against Australia at Sydney in December 1894. He kept his place for all five Test matches, and after England had suffered a crushing innings defeat in the fourth Test (also at Sydney) the teams went into the fifth and final Test at Melbourne with the series level at 2-2. Needing 297 to win, England fell to 28-2, but then Brown and Albert Ward put on 210 before Brown was out for 140, his only Test century. Brown reached his 50 in 28 minutes, still a record, and 100 in 91 minutes, then the fastest Test century. England won the game by six wickets and the Ashes 3-2. He was the first batsman in Test history to score a century in the 4th innings of a Test match.

Brown played only three more Tests, all against the Australians, twice in 1896 and once in 1899, although many judges (not least Wisden) felt that he was unlucky not to be selected for the 1897-98 Ashes tour. He finished with a Test average of 36.15 having scored 470 runs in 16 innings.

In 1897 Brown made his highest score of 311 against Sussex at Bramall Lane, setting a new record of 378 for the first wicket with John Tunnicliffe in the process, following it up with 300 the following year against Derbyshire at Chesterfield. In this match he added 554 for the first wicket with Tunnicliffe, which was then a record partnership for any wicket. He shared 19 century stands with Tunnicliffe in all and Brown is the only batsman to have scored two triple hundreds for Yorkshire.

For Yorkshire against the Australians at Bradford in 1899, he made 84 and 167. In 1900, he made 163 to help The Players to a startling two wicket victory over The Gentlemen at Lord’s, successfully chasing a huge target of 501.

Brown continued to bat productively for Yorkshire for several more seasons and was granted a benefit, being given The Roses match in August 1901. In 1903 he was second only to George Hirst in the Yorkshire batting averages, but in 1904 he played just two matches, both in May, against Cambridge University and Leicestershire before a heart condition forced his retirement. Brown’s health continued to worsen, and later that year he died in a medical home in Pimlico, London at the age of 35. Heavy smoking had contributed to asthma and heart problems. The cause of death was given as heart failure and “congestion of the brain”.

As for his career statistics, he played 353 first class matches, scoring 17,520 runs at an average of 30.52, with 29 centuries and 76 half centuries. He also took 230 catches in those matches.

NB He is not to be confused with another John Thomas Brown, who played less frequently for Yorkshire over a similar time span, who was born at Darfield.