Dick Brittenden

Richard Trevor Brittenden MBE (22 August 1919 – 10 June 2002) was from the 1950s to the 1980s New Zealand's most prominent cricket writer.

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

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.[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

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. 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. 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. Dick Brittenden, The Finest Years, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1977, p. 3.
  13. National Library of New Zealand catalogue Retrieved 14 February 2013
  14. "Cricket legend dies". Times Newspapers. 23 April 2001. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
  15. "No. 50155". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 15 June 1985. p. 2.
  16. McConnell, Lynn (11 June 2002). "Dick Brittenden enjoyed rewards for his cricket perseverance". ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
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