R.I.P. Ken Brook

Rest in Peace

Sorry to report the passing of my club teammate and co-member of the Kirkheaton Tuesday Tea-Time Think Tank, Ken Brook aged 92. Ken passed away in hospital in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Ken had bowled for the Kirkheaton Con teams for many years although he would tell you that he hadn't been at his prime at Kirkheaton. He looked back at his time playing for Crosland Moor as the peak of his playing career and always recalled being a member of the team that lifted the Yorkshire Cup in 1974 as the pinnacle of his bowling life. When Ken got reminiscing about bowling matches and bowlers he had played against he was really good company.

On a club WhatsApp group the news of Ken's passing was sad news for many and prompted a number of memories including 'great guy' and 'lovely man' although that is not something I remember about him. Ken was proud to be labelled a grumpy old man who saw his bowling opponent as the enemy to be beaten at all costs. I witnessed at first hand his approach to bowling and how he used to intimidate and unsettle his opponents.

For example, he would never tell his opponent what bias he was bowling the jack. Finger or Thumb never passed his lips, instead he would briefly hold up the jack showing the bias to his opponent. If his opponent didn't happen to be looking at that time, it was immaterial to Ken, and any request to confirm the bias would be met by silence and maybe a curt remark that he had shown him the jack and that was as much as they were going to get. Watching bowlers walking the length of the green to check the jack bias was a common occurrence in Ken's matches.

Ken took bowling seriously, often to be found practising on his own on the Kirkheaton Con green. Any club member turning up and offering to give him a game was met with a sharp response - 'I've come to practice, not play a game' and off he would go. But get him talking about the good old days of bowling he was engaging company.

For the last 4-5 years I have enjoyed the company of Ken and a few others making a full house of five old-timers meeting every Tuesday tea-time in the clubhouse for a couple of hours right through the year. I labelled this group the Kirkheaton Tuesday Tea-Time Think Tank when discussion, opinions and memories were passed around in equal measure. I liked nothing better than to take an old bowling article from the Examiner or a match programme or photograph to ignite the memory bank recollections.

I once asked Ken if he enjoyed bowling and was surprised at his answer which was a resounding 'No'. So obviously I asked him why he had taken up a sport for 60 years and more that he didn't enjoy. I was surprised again with his response. He told me that his father and uncle got him started in bowling. It was just expected that he would take up the sport. He recollected that it was just 'like going to work' it was something that was expected and you just did it. He never felt that he had a choice in the matter.

Similarly, Ken would talk about his time serving in the army when he was posted for 18 months to the swamps of Malaya. Ken never volunteered this information you had to ask him a direct question about that time to open the memory banks. He would talk about the conditions the soldiers had to endure, about the airdrops of supplies including alcohol and more. He said he never fired a gun in anger in that 18 months and looked back on that period as a time in his life truly wasted.

The photo above was taken in 2020 when Ken shared his model of a bowler that he had concocted, made out of something I cannot recall (I'll ask the Think Tank) and attached ever since to the door of the greenkeeper's cabin. It is a good memento of the man. Ken hadn't been well for some while but he still walked to the club every Tuesday and most other evenings of the week for his pint and a half of Carling and packet of ready salted. That all stopped about two months ago when he became house-bound before ending up in hospital, where he passed away last Saturday morning. He didn't deserve that ending and he will be missed by the Think Tank and many others. Rest in Peace, Ken Brook.

Catch up with our tributes to other bowlers lost to us in recent times