Ben Brocklehurst, who captained Somerset in 1953 and 1954, has just celebrated his eightieth birthday.

Born in Norfolk, Ben Brocklehurst was an elegant right-handed batsman who first appeared for Somerset in 1952 at the age of 30.

His first appearence was against Yorkshire at Taunton in the opening match of the season when he was unfortunate enough to be dismissed without scoring. The bowler on that occasion was a youthful Brian Close who himself was to become another of the county's captains twenty years later.

In his first season with the club, Ben Brocklehurst appeared in just six matches, and scored 160 runs at an average of 16.00, with a highest score of 40.

Ben Brocklehurst was appointed captain of the team for the following season, and played in all but one of the championship matches. In his 27 matches he scored 650 runs at an average of 14.44, with a highest score of 62.

In 1954 he played in all 28 championship matches and enjoyed his best season with the club. In all matches he scored over 800 runs at an average of over 16 which included his career-best innings of 89 against Pakistan at Taunton, when he opened the innings with Les Angell.

At the end of the 1954 Ben Brocklehurst left the county and later became managing director and proprietor of The Cricketer Magazine.

Several years after he left Somerset, Ben Brocklehurst regularly played village cricket for his nearby village of Ashurst which is situated between Tunbridge Wells and East Grinstead on the Kent and Sussex borders.

In one early season, hotly contested local derby encounter with Fordcombe in the early 1960s, the writer of this article bowled Ben Brocklehurst cheaply without knowing that he had once been the captain of Somerset.

If you are reading this Ben, everyone at the club sends their best wishes and hope that you had a good day.

I'm sure you have many happy memories of those long-ago days at the County Ground with the Cidermen.

© SOMERSET