Wisden obituary
Donald Vincent Brennan, who died after a long illness on January 9, 1985, aged 64, played for Yorkshire from 1947 to 1953 and throughout that time was their regular wicketkeeper. So highly was he rated that in 1951 he was preferred to Godfrey Evans, who was perfectly fit and well, for the last two Test matches against South Africa. Granted that Evans had been temporarily below his best, that is an astonishing tribute, especially as in batting Evans was much the better of the two. Evans potentially a fine batsman, who needed the challenge of a Test to bring out his best form: Brennan, whose average for his career was 10.49 and who never reached 50 in a county match, could do little more than stay in doggedly in a crisis. In fact, in his first Test he did just that: he stayed in three-quarters of an hour for 16, helping Bailey, who was playing a fighting innings, to put on 32, but the runs were less important than the time and, had Brennan been out quickly, England's position would have been precarious. Apart from these matches, his representative cricket was confined to the MCC tour of India in 1951-52. He was particularly expert at standing up to the spinners: in the Yorkshire sides at that time he had plenty of opportunities with Wardle, Appleyard and Leadbeater, and he seldom missed a chance of stumping. In his first-class career he caught 316 batsmen and stumped 115. Originally in the XI at Downside, he graduated to the county side through the Bradford League, and after the claims of the family textile business had forced him to retire early, he did valuable work on the Yorkshire committee, feeling as deeply as anyone the disputes which came so constantly as to unsettle the well-being of the county.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack