Brian Heald

MJK Smith presents Brian Heald with Honorary Life Membership at the 2017 AGM
MJK Smith presents Brian Heald with Honorary Life Membership in 2017

Former committee stalwart Brian Heald died on 8 October 2017, aged 79.

A civil servant with Customs and Excise, Brian was one of 30 founder members present when the ACS was set up in 1973, and served on the committee from 1988 to 2005. For much of that time, he played a valuable role as organiser of the Association’s annual London meetings.

He also worked on some of our key statistical publications; in particular, he was a member of a small subcommittee responsible for putting together the most challenging of our series of Guides to First-Class Matches, on India, and later had a similar role with the Sri Lanka guide. In the 1990s and 2000s he was the general editor of the Statistical Surveys series, covering the years from 1868 to 1881, and he was the joint compiler of the volume for 1863.

Outside his work for the ACS, Brian was Essex CCC’s statistician until 2016, and provided key statistical inputs to the Playfair Cricket Annual, The Cricketer Quarterly, and the Benson and Hedges Cricket Year. Though an Essex Man by adoption, he remained a Yorkshireman by birth and inclination, and a loyal supporter of Hull Kingston Rovers. As well as an extensive library, he had a collection of several hundred cricket ties.

His wife, Jenny, has contributed significantly in her own right to the ACS and to Essex, as well as being at Brian’s side for so much of his time with the Association.

Brian was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the ACS at the AGM in March 2017.