Brian Bruce Gidney (6 April 1938 — 18 March 2019) was an English first-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er and educator. Gidney was born at

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable a ...

in April 1938. He was initially educated at Arundel House School in Surbiton, before receiving a scholarship to Kingston Grammar School. From there he matriculated to

Queens' College Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, following a spell in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

doing National Service. While studying at Cambridge, he played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for Cambridge University Cricket Club in 1963, making a single appearance against the touring Pakistan Eaglets at

Fenner's Fenner's is Cambridge University Cricket Club's ground. History Cambridge University Cricket Club had previously played at two grounds in Cambridge, the University Ground and Parker's Piece. In 1846, Francis Fenner leased a former cherry orch ...

. Batting twice in the match as an opening batsman, he was dismissed in the Cambridge first innings for 7 runs by Asif Iqbal, while in their second innings he was dismissed for 9 runs by

Farooq Hamid Farooq Hamid (born 3 March 1945) is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in one Test in 1964. Career A tall right-arm opening bowler, Farooq Hamid made his first-class debut in 1961-62, and toured England with the Pakistan Eaglets in 1963. He ...

. Gidney also played

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shootin ...

for Cambridge and was selected for four years running in the Varsity Match against

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the Un ...

. He accepted a teaching job at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

following his graduation from Cambridge, where he was to teach for around a year. In 1965, he was offered a two-year teaching job at Hale School in Australia, which he accepted. It was there that he met his future wife, a school nurse from a competing school, which persuaded him to remain in Australia and become Head of Economics at the school. He remained at Hale School until 1985, before taking up a similar role at Wesley College, Perth. He had success as a junior cricket coach, managing biennial tours of a Combined Public Schoolboys of Western Australia Cricket XI to England. For his services to coaching cricket, Gidney was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000. Alongside his teaching, he was also a part-time lecturer and tutor at the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. He retired from teaching in 1997 and from his part-time lecturing in 2012. Gidney died at Subiaco in March 2019.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gidney, Brian 1938 births 2019 deaths Cricketers from Kingston upon Thames People educated at Kingston Grammar School Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge English cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Schoolteachers from London English emigrants to Australia