Brian Gidney

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

Gidney was born at Kingston upon Thames in April 1938. He was initially educated at Arundel House School in Surbiton, before receiving a scholarship to Kingston Grammar School.[1] From there he matriculated to Queens' College at the University of Cambridge,[2] following a spell in the Royal Air Force doing National Service.[1] While studying at Cambridge, he played first-class cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club in 1963, making a single appearance against the touring Pakistan Eaglets at Fenner's.[3] 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.[4] Gidney also played field hockey for Cambridge and was selected for four years running in the Varsity Match against Oxford.[1]

He accepted a teaching job at Charterhouse School following his graduation from Cambridge, where he was to teach for around a year.[1] 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.[1] Alongside his teaching, he was also a part-time lecturer and tutor at the University of Western Australia. He retired from teaching in 1997 and from his part-time lecturing in 2012. Gidney died at Subiaco in March 2019.[1]