The Great All-Rounder
- Brigands CC
- Oct 29
- 2 min read
Bryan Burns profiles the legendary Bernard Marshall, the Brigands great all-rounder
At the end of the season, with the ground put to bed, and cricketers are getting ready to hibernate. At the end-of-season dinner at the Bat and Ball, the statisticians having completed their analysis, club trophies are presented; best bowler, best batter, yes, but no one has matched the all-round performance of Bernard Marshall in 1977 when he took 30 wickets and scored 300 runs in a season. His figures were 361 runs at an average of 30.1 and 30 wickets at 10.9. And no one has approached those achievements since.
As a Royal Naval Chaplain Bernard joined HMS MERCURY in 1973 and quickly established himself in the Brigands. He took over running the Club in 1974 when the role was not just Chairman, but included Secretary and Fixtures!
Bernard was already a playing member of MCC, but he loved his Brigands cricket and became a key player for several years whilst at MERCURY including that outstanding season of 1977.
Bernard was great fun, an engaging character with a wicked sense of humour. Not least in 1973 when the match against London New Zealand started at 1130. As morning service in the little converted Nissen hut of a church at MERCURY progressed, Bernard suddenly announced that there would be no sermon that day as the cricket at Broadhalfpenny had an early start which he wasn’t going to miss. And it was in that little church he christened our daughter Katherine who, having clearly picked up the cricket influence, became the Brigands scorer on many of the Westcountry tours. It was on one of these in 1990 that Bernard once again joined us for two matches down in Devon.
On retiring from the Royal Navy he became the vicar of Ashford Hill near Newbury and quickly established a Brigands fixture there, one that has been renewed in the past few seasons. He was also able to indulge one of his great passions, horseracing, by taking on the role of honorary Chaplain of Newbury racecourse. Bernard, sadly, died in 2003 but a full Brigands XI and a 12th Man were present at his funeral.
I used to open with Anthony Banes-Walker in the 70's and Bernard regularly batted at 3 , so we often were in a partnership in the middle; and of course he would bowl first change; and umpire too with an umpires white coat over his shorts !! A great man to know and play cricket with; his sermons were good too (and short if cricket was on). Happy days. Roy Newman
Bryan,
Wonderful to read these memories of Bernard. I was also christened by Bernard, although my service took place aboard HMS INTREPID.
My father, as you know, was also a Brigand, played RNCC and United Services cricket with Bernard and the two of them were great friends. I was born 11 weeks early and Bernard would push me round the boundary in my pram telling anyone who asked that I was saved because he had a direct line with God!
In his retirement, he even managed to convince my father to come out of cricket retirement and play for his side up at Newbury.
The last time I saw Bernard was up at Broadhalfpenny Down in the late 90s. It…