Dick Brittenden MBE | |
---|---|
Brittenden in 1977 Brittenden in 1977 | |
Born |
Richard Trevor Brittenden 22 September 1919 Rakaia, New Zealand |
Died |
10 June 2002 Christchurch, New Zealand | (aged 82)
Occupation | Sports journalist |
Richard Trevor Brittenden MBE (22 August 1919 – 10 June 2002) was from the 1950s to the 1980s New Zealand's most prominent cricket writer.
Early life, family and career[]
Brittenden was born at Rakaia on 22 August 1919, and was educated at Christchurch Boys' High School from 1933 to 1937.[1] In October 1940 he married Joy Mantell, and the couple went on to have five children.[1][2] His grandson, Nick Perry, is a journalist with the Associated Press.[3]
During World War II, Brittenden served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force in Britain and the Bahamas.[4][5] He joined the Christchurch Press in 1938 and became its sports editor in 1955, staying in that position until he retired in 1984.[6]
Cricket books[]
He reported on New Zealand's tour of South Africa in 1953-54, and wrote his first book about the tour, Silver Fern on the Veld (1954). Great Days in New Zealand Cricket followed in 1958: 26 chapters, each one describing a significant match in New Zealand cricket history. Fittingly, the longest chapter is the last one, on New Zealand's first, and at that stage only, Test victory, in Auckland in 1956.[7] In 1961 he wrote New Zealand Cricketers, 50 chapters, each one on a prominent New Zealand player, past or present. An extra chapter at the beginning is about Lord Cobham, New Zealand's cricket-playing Governor-General, who had just played his last first-class game at the age of 51,[8] while a postscript is dedicated to "the below average cricketer", the dedicated but ungifted club player: "Without him, the game would not survive, because it would be meaningless."[9] Having attended first-class cricket matches in New Zealand since 1928,[10] Brittenden had watched and in most cases known personally all 50 subjects, except for the Wellington batsman Syd Hiddleston, "and I have found many cricketers of mature years eager and willing to talk about him".[11]
He covered the tour to England, India and Pakistan in 1965 (Red Leather, Silver Fern) and the West Indies tour to New Zealand in 1968-69 and subsequent New Zealand tour to England, India and Pakistan in 1969-70 (Scoreboard '69).
In 1977 he wrote The Finest Years: Twenty Years of New Zealand Cricket, covering 17 significant Test Matches beginning with the victory at Auckland in 1956 and ending with the victory over India in Wellington in 1976; 22 profiles of leading players of the period follow. Of New Zealand Test cricket he writes, "It will always be a matter of ups and downs, with such a relatively small cricket population. The fact that there are ups is sufficient encouragement."[12]
More books followed: 100 Years of Cricket: A History of the Canterbury Cricket Association, 1877-1977 (1977); Hadlee (with Richard Hadlee) (1981); A Cricket Century: The First 100 Years of the Lancaster Park Cricket Club Inc. (1981); Test Series '82: The Australian Cricket Tour of New Zealand (with Don Cameron and chapters by Greg Chappell and Geoff Howarth) (1982); Big Names in New Zealand Cricket: Fifty Profiles (1983); The New Zealand Cricketers' Who's Who (with Richard Hadlee and Francis Payne) (1985); England Skittled: New Zealand v. England, Wellington, 10–15 February 1978 (2000).[13]
Other works[]
Brittenden also wrote Give 'em the Axe: The First Hundred Years of the Christchurch Football Club (1963), and ghost-wrote Bert Sutcliffe's memoirs, Between Overs (1963).[14] He was managing editor of the New Zealand Cricketer from its inception in 1967 to 1973, and also edited its successor, the Cricket Player.[6]
In the 1985 Queen's Birthday Honours, Brittenden was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to sporting journalism.[15] The press box at Lancaster Park in Christchurch is named after him.
Death[]
Brittenden died in Christchurch on 10 June 2002.[16]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 78. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
- ↑ "[untitled"]. 7 October 1940. p. 2. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19401007.2.9.2.
- ↑ "Seattle Times journalist named to AP New Zealand post". FOX News. 24 May 2011. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/24/seattle-times-journalist-named-ap-nzealand-post/. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
- ↑ "Dick Brittenden" by Matthew Appleby Retrieved 14 February 2013
- ↑ "Richard Trevor Brittenden". https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/91421. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Wisden 2003, p. 1616.
- ↑ R.T. Brittenden, Great Days in New Zealand Cricket, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1958, pp. 183-95.
- ↑ R.T. Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1961, pp. 1-4.
- ↑ Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, pp. 179-80.
- ↑ Brittenden, Great Days in New Zealand Cricket, dust jacket author's note.
- ↑ Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, pp. xi.
- ↑ Dick Brittenden, The Finest Years, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1977, p. 3.
- ↑ National Library of New Zealand catalogue Retrieved 14 February 2013
- ↑ "Cricket legend dies". Times Newspapers. April 23, 2001. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140427040316/http://www.times.co.nz/2001/cricket-legend-dies.html. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
- ↑ "No. 50155". 15 June 1985. p. 2. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/50155/supplement/2
- ↑ McConnell, Lynn (11 June 2002). "Dick Brittenden enjoyed rewards for his cricket perseverance". ESPNCricinfo. http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/story/117740.html. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
The original article can be found at Dick Brittenden and the edit history here.