An Appreciation of John Browne
John Browne passed away on the 10th July2023. His was a life of two halves ,the first devoted to rugby, the second to a love of cricket. He came to Halverstown after he finished a long rugby career with Tullow RFC. I have no idea how he found out about Halverstown or why he choose to come to play here, but it was a lucky turn for our club. He took up the game in this thirties and had an immediate appetite for all its skills and tactics. He played as often as he could as well as ,in due course, organising and captaining Halverstown all over the country and on tour in UK, notably against the Lords and Commons XI in London. His stature , his physique and his reputation meant that he had to be a fast opening bowler and he worked hard to master all the attributes needed to deliver and improve. John’s batting was not his best talent and he quickly reconciled to being a happy number 11. A cricket bat never looked at home in his hands - not big enough in any direction !
It was as captain, organiser and encourager that John will be remembered in Halverstown. There are no statistics to describe this except how many games he played in, how many people came to cricket on his watch as captain and how many played their game and loved it. John had great energy, determination, excitement, knowledge and everlasting humour which all found a home in cricket at Halverstown.
We send our condolences to Noreen and to his daughters Thea, Jan and Fleur.
