Bryan Herbert Valentine (17 January 1908 – 2 February 1983) was an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played in seven

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Indoor cricket, Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (associa ...

between 1933 and 1939. He was born at

Blackheath, London Blackheath is an area in Southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. Historically within the county of Kent, it is located northeast of Lewisham, south of Greenwich, London, G ...

and died at

Otford Otford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It lies on the River Darent, north of Sevenoaks. Otford's four churches are the Anglican Church of St Bartholomew in the village centre, the Otford Methodist C ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

.Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part Two: 1919–1939'', pp. 150–156.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-07-01.) Although he played only seven Tests, his Test

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 64.85, including two centuries and one fifty, is twice his overall

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

record of 30.15 with 35 centuries and 90 fifties in 399 first-class matches. He played in just two Test series, scoring 179 runs in two tests against India on the 1933/34 tour with a best of 136 in less than 3 hours on debut in Bombay. He amassed 275 runs in 5 matches against South Africa on the 1938/39 MCC tour, including a score of 112 in 2 hours, 40 minutes in Cape Town in the Second Test of the series. His final Test was the famous 'timeless test' in Durban which saw England's last innings cut short at 654/5 when they were forced to catch the boat home after 10 days of cricket. Valentine ended the match on 4 not out. Valentine was educated at

Lockers Park School Lockers Park School is a day and boarding preparatory and pre-preparatory school for boys, situated in 23 acres of countryside in Boxmoor, Hertfordshire. Its headmaster is Gavin Taylor. History Lockers Park was founded in 1872 by Henry Monta ...

in Hertfordshire,

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, private, boarding and day school in the public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school which was th ...

and

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

. He represented Cambridge University at cricket in 1928 and 1929, and also won a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

for soccer. His long career at

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

as a right-handed batsman and occasional medium pacer spanned two decades from 1927 to 1948. He was awarded his Kent cap in 1931 and captained the county on occasion during the 1930s in the absence of Percy Chapman; in 1937 he shared the captaincy with Ronnie Bryan. Following Gerry Chalk's death in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Valentine captained Kent again between 1946 and 1948 before being succeeded by David Clark. An attacking batsman whose defence improved with experience in the first-class arena, he was particularly strong through the leg side but his Test appearances were limited by the strength of the England team at the time. His highest score, 242, was made for Kent against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

at Oakham in 1938. A limited bowler, he was an excellent all round fielder equally at home in the covers or catching close to the wicket. During World War II Valentine served with the

Royal West Kent Regiment The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army based in the county of Kent in existence from 1881 to 1961. The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, originally as the Queen' ...

and was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

"in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in North Africa". He returned to cricket despite being badly wounded during hostilities. He was President of Kent County Cricket Club in 1967 and served on the cricket committee for many years. His sister, Carol, also played test cricket for

England women's cricket team The England women's cricket team represents England and Wales in international women's cricket. Since 1998, they have been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by the Women's Cricket Associatio ...

References

External links

*
Bryan Herbert Valentine
(obituary), Kent Cricket {{DEFAULTSORT:Valentine, Bryan 1908 births 1983 deaths England Test cricketers Cricketers who made a century on Test debut Kent cricket captains Kent cricketers Free Foresters cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Cambridge University cricketers Gentlemen cricketers People educated at Repton School Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge North v South cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment officers British Army personnel of World War II Recipients of the Military Cross English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 20th-century English sportsmen L. H. Tennyson's XI cricket team Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Military personnel from the London Borough of Lewisham People from Blackheath, London Cricketers from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Cricketers from the London Borough of Lewisham