Brownlee Leigh Image 2 Gloucestershire 1907

Description

Redland, Bristol born Leigh Brownlee was a right-handed middle or lower order batsman and an infrequent right-arm slow bowler. Educated at Clifton College, after leaving school in the summer of 1901, he made his first class debut for Gloucestershire in two end-of-season matches, and in his first game against Somerset at Taunton, he made 66 in the Gloucestershire second innings, though he was unable to prevent a Somerset victory with less than an hour of the scheduled match time remaining. A student at Oriel College, Oxford University from the autumn of 1901, he played in one match for the university cricket team in 1902, and in one match for Somerset against the university side – Somerset frequently “borrowed” university players for their matches against the university sides in the first third of the 20th century, but this game has an additional curiosity in that it is one of the few 12-a-side first class matches.

Though unable to break into the Oxford University side, Brownlee played regularly for Gloucestershire when the university term was over, and in the match against Kent at Bristol he scored 103 in the first innings, the only century of his first class cricket career. In 1903, he was given half a dozen games for the University side but was not successful then, nor in 10 matches for Gloucestershire in the second half of the season: his batting average for the season as a whole was under 10 runs per innings, and his highest score in the season was just 43.

Brownlee had a better cricketing year in 1904. Despite never reaching 50 in an innings for Oxford’s cricket team, he retained his place in the team through the University cricket season and won a Blue by appearing in the University Match against Cambridge University, though he made only 3 and 9 in his two innings in the match. He had a better season for Gloucestershire too than he had had in 1903, with a highest score of 97, batting at number 9 in the match against Kent. In addition to his success in winning a cricket Blue, Brownlee also won a Blue for golf in his last year at Oxford. Brownlee had a full season of first class cricket in 1905, appearing in 16 matches for Gloucestershire, though he was not successful, scoring only 244 runs at an average of 10.16 and with a highest score of only 38.

From 1906 to 1909, Brownlee’s journalism career came first and he appeared in just a handful of matches for Gloucestershire in each season, with only one further score of more than 50, an innings of 79 in the match against Northamptonshire in 1908. He did not play any further matches after 1909, finishing his career having played 82 first class matches. With the bat he scored 5 half centuries in addition to his single century, scoring 1,946 runs at an average of 14.63. He took 15 wickets with a best performance of 3-40, and held 63 catches in first class cricket.

His younger brother Wilfred Brownlee played for Gloucestershire between 1909 and 1914.