Somerset Cricket Club Players Gallery – Brian Rose

Brian Charles Rose (born 4 June 1950) was educated at Weston-super-Mare Grammar School for Boys and trained as a teacher before pursuing a successful county career with Somerset. He succeeded Brian Close as captain in 1978, and he led the county to their first ever trophies, the Gillette Cup and the John Player League, in 1979. The include world-class match winners in Ian Botham, Viv Richards and Joel Garner, county professionals and keen youngsters.

Brian made that infamous decision to declare Somerset’s innings closed in a 1979 Benson and Hedges Cup zonal match after one over, to ensure their progress through the group on run-rate. While within the rules, Somerset were ejected from the competition for bringing the game into disrepute, and Rose was condemned in the press.

In 270 first-class matches he scored 13,236 runs at 33.25 with a career best of 205. He resumed teaching after retiring from the first-class game, but maintained his involvement with Somerset. A past Chairman of Cricket, he became the Director of Cricket at Taunton, but stood down at the end of the 2012 season.