Full Name

Paul Wilson Brooks

Born

May 28, 1921, Marylebone, London

Died

January 26, 1946, Paddington, London, (aged 24y 243d)

Batting Style

Left hand Bat

Bowling Style

Left arm Fast medium

Paul Brooks played once as an 18-year-old for Middlesex in 1939 in the last match before war, drafted in to fill in for a number of regulars who had joined up. The game was Middlesex's last first-class fixture for almost seven years. Brooks made an unbeaten 44 in his only innings, an improvement on the duck he made in his one second-team outing a year earlier. But he had already made a minor name for himself when in 1938 he bowled Don Bradman in the nets at Lord's while he was on the MCC Groundstaff, a feat that earned him an interview on British Movietone News. In the war he was in the London Fire Service (he represented them at Lord's) and took part in the London and Coventry blitzes. He subsequently joined the Coldstream Guards and it was while serving with them in Italy in April 1945 he was shot by a sniper. He was repatriated but died from his wounds in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington in the January of 1946.
Martin Williamson

Paul Brooks Career Stats

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAve100s50sCtSt
FC1114444*-0000

Bowling

FormatMatBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
FC1000-----000

Debut/Last Matches of Paul Brooks

FC Matches

Span
1939 - 1939

Photos of Paul Brooks

The <I>Daily Express</I> reports on Don Bradman being bowled by a schoolboy
Paul Brooks