WEST Country cricket is mourning the sad loss of Tony Brown, who was secretary of Somerset County Cricket Club for six years between 1982 and 1988, and has passed away at the age of 83, writes Richard Walsh.

Anthony Stephen Brown was born in Bristol on June 24, 1936, and enjoyed a long and impressive playing career with Gloucestershire before being appointed to the post of secretary at Somerset in 1982.

Brown was a very useful all-rounder who played for Gloucestershire from 1953 to 1976, and skippered the side from 1968 until 1976.

One of the highlights of his years of captaincy was when he was named Man of the Match in the Gillette Cup Final in 1973, after scoring an unbeaten 77 to help Gloucestershire beat Sussex at Lord’s.

During his career, Brown made 489 First Class appearances for Gloucestershire, in which he scored 12,681 runs and claimed 1,223 wickets.

His career best score in the First Class game was 116 against Somerset in 1971, while with the ball his best was 8-80 against Essex in 1963.

He also held onto 488 catches, including seven in one innings against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, which equalled the world record and still stands today.

After retiring from playing, Brown remained involved with cricket, initially as secretary and manager at Gloucestershire, before he was appointed as secretary of Somerset in 1982, to replace David Seward.

During his time in post at Somerset, Brown had to manage the upheaval caused by departure of Ian Botham, Joel Garner and Viv Richards before, in 1988, he was appointed as assistant secretary at the Test and County Cricket Board.

Later on, he became chairman of cricket at Gloucestershire from 1999 to 2007, during which time the club enjoyed success in one-day competitions, before serving as president between 2008 and 2011.