Dennis Breakwell

Dennis Breakwell was born on 2 July 1948 at Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, in the West Midlands, to John (Jack) Breakwell and Florence Emily Talbot. He grew up in a cricketing family: his father had a successful career in Birmingham League cricket and captained Dudley Cricket Club.

A slow left-arm bowler, he played for Staffordshire Schools and attracted the interest of Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. At 15 he went to Northampton for a three-month trial and was offered a contract.

Breakwell made his first-class debut for Northamptonshire against Oxford University on 21 June 1969. Over four seasons he played 64 first-class matches for the county, scoring 997 runs and taking 137 wickets, in a strong side that included Colin Milburn, Sarfraz Nawaz and the Indian spinner Bishan Bedi. At Dover in 1970 he took eight for 39 as Northamptonshire beat Kent by an innings, dismissing Mike Denness, Colin Cowdrey, John Shepherd, Alan Knott and Derek Underwood; it remained the best return of his career.

Because Bedi did much of the spin bowling, Breakwell did not bowl as much as he wanted. In 1972, after a match against Somerset at Wellingborough, the Somerset captain Brian Close asked him to join the club, and Northamptonshire agreed to release him. He moved to Taunton before the 1973 season and, as he later said, "became very much a Somerset person".

Between 1973 and 1983 he played 165 first-class matches for Somerset, scoring 3,777 runs and taking 281 wickets, and 148 one-day games, scoring 1,059 runs and taking 58 wickets. He was capped in 1976, roomed with the young Ian Botham and Viv Richards, and played alongside Joel Garner in the side that won two trophies over one weekend in 1979. His only first-class hundred, an unbeaten 100, came against the New Zealanders at Taunton in July 1978. He played his last first-class match in 1983 and his last one-day game in 1984, finishing with 422 first-class wickets in 231 matches.

After his playing days he became a schools coach, and in 1991 he joined King's College, Taunton, as head coach and groundsman, holding the post until 2013. Several of his pupils went on to first-class cricket, most famously the England batsman Jos Buttler, whom he rated at 16 as a better cricketer than Botham had been at the same age.

Breakwell settled in Taunton after joining Somerset and lived there for the rest of his life. He was known for an infectious sense of humour that made him an essential part of the Somerset dressing room whether or not he was playing, and at King's College he was remembered for his pitches, his nets sessions and his jokes; one of his nicknames there was The Severed Nerve. He shared a Somerset benefit season with Trevor Gard in 1989 and remained close to the club, recording an episode of its Former Player Podcast in 2024.

Dennis Breakwell died in Taunton after a long illness, aged 78. Somerset County Cricket Club announced his death on 9 November 2026 and lowered the flag at the Cooper Associates County Ground to half mast. The club did not give the exact date of his death.

Brian Rose, Somerset's captain during the Glory Years, said: "One of the great things about Dennis, and what he brought to Somerset cricket, was that he was a great character and an enlivening soul in the dressing room. He was great fun to have about the team." He added: "Dennis was a good cricketer and had a lot of talent, and he brought a lot to the side. His personality was his greatest legacy." The club described him as a very friendly and hugely likeable character who would be greatly missed.

Breakwell was a dependable all-rounder in two of the strongest county sides of the 1970s and part of the Somerset team that won the club's first trophies. His longer influence came through more than two decades of coaching at King's College, Taunton, where he helped shape a generation of young cricketers including Jos Buttler, who named him among the coaches who were really influential on his career.