Dick Brittenden

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Dick Brittenden
MBE
Brittenden in 1977
Born
Richard Trevor Brittenden

(1919-09-22)22 September 1919
Rakaia, New Zealand
Died10 June 2002(2002-06-10) (aged 82)
Christchurch, New Zealand
OccupationSports 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[edit]

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.[2][1] 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[edit]

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] Reviewing the book in the Christchurch Press, Iain Gallaway wrote of Brittenden:

He has described with his customary apt use of metaphors and similes each one's peculiar gifts, attributes and failings (the chapter devoted to S. N. McGregor is a particularly brilliant illustration of this) analysing in a manner which confirms his profound knowledge of the game, and describing in a manner which I have always felt likens him so much to that most gifted English journalist, Denzil Batchelor.[12]

Brittenden 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 Brittenden 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."[13]

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).[14]

Other works[edit]

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).[15] 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.[16] The press box at Lancaster Park in Christchurch is named after him.

Death[edit]

Brittenden died in Christchurch on 10 June 2002.[17]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b 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.
  2. ^ "[untitled]". Press: 2. 7 October 1940.
  3. ^ "Seattle Times journalist named to AP New Zealand post". FOX News. Associated Press. 24 May 2011. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  4. ^ "Dick Brittenden" by Matthew Appleby Retrieved 14 February 2013
  5. ^ "Richard Trevor Brittenden". Auckland Museum. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  6. ^ a b Wisden 2003, p. 1616.
  7. ^ R.T. Brittenden, Great Days in New Zealand Cricket, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1958, pp. 183-95.
  8. ^ R.T. Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1961, pp. 1-4.
  9. ^ Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, pp. 179-80.
  10. ^ Brittenden, Great Days in New Zealand Cricket, dust jacket author's note.
  11. ^ Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, pp. xi.
  12. ^ Gallaway, Iain (2 December 1961). "Fifty Cricket Biographies". Press: 9.
  13. ^ Dick Brittenden, The Finest Years, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1977, p. 3.
  14. ^ National Library of New Zealand catalogue Retrieved 14 February 2013
  15. ^ "Cricket legend dies". Times Newspapers. 23 April 2001. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
  16. ^ "No. 50155". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 15 June 1985. p. 2.
  17. ^ McConnell, Lynn (11 June 2002). "Dick Brittenden enjoyed rewards for his cricket perseverance". ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
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