Alan Brown

Kent Cricket announced on 16 October 2026 that Brown had died at the age of 90, one day before what would have been his 91st birthday. The club said it was deeply saddened and that its thoughts were with his friends and family at a desperately sad time. The announcement did not give the exact date, place or cause of death, and these had not been made public. Tributes noted his place in the 1970 Championship side and his parallel career in Kent football. A memorial page in his name collected donations for the British Heart Foundation.

Alan Brown was born on 17 October 1935 in Rainworth, a mining village about two miles east of Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. He was the only Kent cricketer of his era who could claim a mining background, traditionally a rich source of fast bowlers, though his roots were in the Nottinghamshire coalfield rather than Kent's. He made one appearance for Nottinghamshire Second XI in 1953.

In August 1954 he was called up for National Service as 2305525 Gunner Brown A of the Royal Artillery. Within weeks he was posted to Milton Barracks in Gravesend, where he spent his full two years and played cricket for the Imperial Paper Mills team. His pace soon made him well known around Gravesend, and after National Service he went to the Kent coaching nets at Eltham and was recommended for a trial at Canterbury, where he bowled at the first team. Colin Cowdrey and Les Ames, then taking charge of Kent, wrote to Nottinghamshire to secure his release.

Brown began his Kent career in May 1957 with five wickets in a Second XI match at Lord's, and made his first-class debut against Cambridge University at Fenner's that season, finishing with 27 first-class wickets. He became a regular in 1958, taking 48 wickets including his first five-wicket haul, at Trent Bridge against his native county. Despite a heel injury in 1959 he took 61 wickets that summer, including four in five balls and nine in the match against Nottinghamshire at Folkestone.

He was awarded his Kent cap, number 135, in 1961 and chosen for the MCC tour of India, Pakistan and Ceylon that winter, when England's leading fast bowlers declined to travel. On his Test debut against Pakistan at Lahore in October 1961 he took 3 for 27 in the second innings as England won by five wickets. His second Test, against India in Bombay in November, was drawn. The slow pitches did not suit him and he did not play for England again.

In 1962 he topped Kent's bowling averages, with 18 wickets in a single Maidstone Week. After an injury-hit 1964 he enjoyed his best season in 1965, spearheading the attack with more than 100 wickets at an average of 19.04 (Kent Cricket records 116; other sources give 119), including 7 for 45 at Trent Bridge. A hard-hitting tail-ender, he made three first-class fifties with a best of 81.

He took 707 first-class wickets for Kent in 237 matches between 1957 and 1970, 17th on the county's all-time list, and 743 first-class wickets in all at under 25 apiece. 1970 was his last season: he played his final first-class match in Canterbury Week and his last game in a Sunday League fixture at Bournemouth that September. He did not play in the match that clinched the Championship, Kent's first since 1913, but appears in the famous photograph of the title-winning squad at The Oval. He and David Sayer shared a testimonial in 1971.

Alongside cricket he played non-league football as a centre-forward. After interest from Arsenal and Gillingham he joined Gravesend and Northfleet in 1957, scoring 106 goals for the club at all levels, then played for Margate, Canterbury City, Deal Town (twice top scorer), Bexley and Whitstable Town, and had a trial at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

After retiring from cricket Brown worked in the two big local industries of north Kent, first as a salesman for Imperial Paper Mills and then as a manager at the cement maker APCM, before finishing his working life with the Post Office. He lived in Gravesend, where he gave a long interview to KentOnline before celebrating his 90th birthday with his family in October 2025, saying proudly that he was the oldest living Kent Test player. He remained a regular and popular guest at Kent Cricket events, including a 2015 hospitality day at Canterbury.

Brown was Kent's main strike bowler through the late 1950s and 1960s, part of a seam attack with Norman Graham, John Dye and David Sayer that helped build the side which won the 1970 Championship. With 707 wickets he remains among the county's leading wicket-takers. He is also remembered as one of the last sportsmen to combine first-class cricket with a successful senior football career, and as a warm and entertaining storyteller in the Kent cricket community.