Brun Smith
{{short description|New Zealand cricketer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2013}}
{{Infobox cricketer
| name = Brun Smith
| image = 1947_NZ_Test_team.jpg
| caption = The New Zealand Test team, Christchurch, March 1947. Brun Smith is farthest right in the front row.
| fullname = Frank Brunton Smith
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|3|13|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Rangiora, Canterbury, New Zealand
| death_date = {{death date and age|1997|7|6|1922|3|13|df=y}}
| death_place = Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
| family = Frank Smith (father)
Geoff Smith (son)
| international = true
| internationalspan = 1947-1952
| country = New Zealand
| testdebutagainst = England
| testdebutdate = 21 March
| testdebutyear = 1947
| testcap = 42
| lasttestdate = 8 February
| lasttestagainst = West Indies
| lasttestyear = 1952
| batting = Right-handed
| bowling = Right-arm offbreak
| club1 = Canterbury
| year1 = {{nowrap|1946/47–1952/53}}
| columns = 2
| column1 = Test
| matches1 = 4
| runs1 = 237
| bat avg1 = 47.40
| 100s/50s1 = 0/2
| top score1 = 96
| deliveries1 = 0
| wickets1 = –
| bowl avg1 = –
| fivefor1 = –
| tenfor1 = –
| best bowling1 = –
| catches/stumpings1= 1/–
| column2 = First-class
| matches2 = 49
| runs2 = 2643
| bat avg2 = 33.03
| 100s/50s2 = 4/14
| top score2 = 153
| deliveries2 = 117
| wickets2 = 1
| bowl avg2 = 76.00
| fivefor2 = 0
| tenfor2 = 0
| best bowling2 = 1/6
| catches/stumpings2= 21/–
| date = 1 April
| year = 2017
| source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/38394.html Cricinfo
}}
Frank Brunton Smith (13 March 1922 – 6 July 1997) was a New Zealand cricketer who played in four Tests between 1947 and 1952. He played first-class cricket for Canterbury from 1946 to 1953. His father Frank[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/22/22873/22873.html Frank Smith at Cricket Archive] played for Canterbury in the 1920s; Brun's son Geoff[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/22/22874/22874.html Geoff Smith at Cricket Archive] played for Canterbury in the 1970s.
Cricket career
An aggressive middle-order batsman, Brun Smith played for Canterbury in the Plunket Shield from 1946–47 to 1952–53. After scoring 106 out of a Canterbury total of 194 against Auckland in January 1947, he made his Test debut against England a few weeks later, scoring 18. He was not in the original selected team, but was included just before the match to replace the injured Stewie Dempster.{{cite journal |title=New Zealand Test Team |journal=Evening Star |date=18 March 1947 |page=4 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19470318.2.19}} His highest first-class score was 153 for Canterbury against Otago in Christchurch in the 1948–49 season, when his 392 runs at 56.00 helped Canterbury to win the Plunket Shield.{{cite web |title=Plunket Shield 1948-49 |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/3/Plunket_Shield_1948-49.html |publisher=CricketArchive |accessdate=15 September 2020}}
Smith toured England in 1949, scoring 1008 runs at 28.00, and playing two Tests. In the First Test at Headingley he scored 96 in two hours in the first innings and 54 in the second.Wisden 1950, pp. 227-28. He made 23 in the Second Test, and was then replaced by John Reid, who was making his Test debut, for the Third and Fourth Tests.
Smith played in the First Test against the West Indies at Christchurch in 1951–52, top-scoring in the second innings with 37 despite a strained leg muscle.Wisden 1953, p. 837. It was his last Test. For many years his Test average of 47.40 placed him third (after Stewie Dempster and Martin Donnelly) among New Zealanders with 200 or more Test runs.Wisden 2012, pp. 1437-44. He succeeded Walter Hadlee as captain of Canterbury during the 1951–52 season and led them to victory in the Plunket Shield.A. D. Davidson, "The Plunket Shield", The Cricketer, 3 May 1952, pp. 114–18.
Dick Brittenden said, "Smith's batting was always violent, usually brilliant. Not that it was always a sound proposition."R.T. Brittenden, New Zealand Cricketers, A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1961, pp. 154–56. In 1952 The Cricketer's New Zealand correspondent noted that, while the 1951-52 Plunket Shield season was characterized by an excess of cautious batting, "Smith, perhaps, went to the other extreme". He once scored a century before lunch for Canterbury, and hit 155 in 62 minutes in a club game in Christchurch.
Outside cricket
Smith attended Christchurch Boys' High School, where in 1940 he received the Deans Scholarship, which is awarded annually to a boy in his final year "who in the highest degree exhibits the qualities of intellect, athletic ability, leadership and character".{{cite web |title=Scholarships & Awards |url=https://www.cbhs.school.nz/students/student-life/scholarships-awards |website=Christchurch Boys' High School |accessdate=18 September 2020}}{{cite journal |title=Secondary Schools End Their Year |journal=The Press |date=13 December 1940 |page=14 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/press/1940/12/13/14}} He served in the New Zealand Army in World War II as a signalman.{{cite web |title=Frank Brunton Smith |url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/172323 |website=Online Cenotaph |publisher=Auckland War Memorial Museum |accessdate=18 September 2020}} Later he was a primary school teacher and principal in Christchurch.Wisden 1998, p. 1440.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{cricketarchive|ref=Archive/Players/0/768/768.html}}
- {{cricinfo|ref=ci/content/player/38394.html}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Brun}}
Category:Canterbury cricketers
Category:Cricketers from Rangiora
Category:New Zealand cricketers
Category:New Zealand military personnel of World War II
Category:New Zealand schoolteachers
Category:New Zealand Test cricketers
Category:People educated at Christchurch Boys' High School