It is doubtful whether any sporting official in this town has ever earned as many accolades as Gordon "Bomber" Browne.
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Throughout a period of 60 years of involvement in cricket and Australian Rules Football he was presented with six Life Memberships including; Griffith Junior Australian Football (1985), Griffith Ex-Servicemen's Cricket Club (1988), Murrumbidgee Cricket Council (1990), Griffith District Cricket Association (2000), Riverina Cricket Zone (2004) and Country Cricket NSW (2005).
In 2000 Gordon was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his services to cricket and in 2017 he was awarded Griffith Club Person of the Year.
Gordon was born in West Wyalong on 23rd August, 1941. In his early years the family battled difficult conditions in the agricultural sector and moved around a lot.
Gordon started his schooling at Euratha and finished at Barellan in 1957 after stints at West Wyalong, Weethalle and Mildil
He had five sisters so not much sport was played in the backyard. His early involvement in sports occurred at School and he got to play cricket at Binya at the age of fourteen and Aussie Rules for Barellan Central School.
He went on to play football with the Griffith Swans and cricket for Juniors and the Ex-Servicemen's dub after moving to Griffith. He played over 100 games with and Griffith Swans and also coached a Yenda Aussie Rules side for a season.
Illness ended his football career but marked the start of an umpiring career that went for 25 years and over 400 games. He continued as an umpires advisor for some years after retiring from umpiring.
However he continued his involvement in cricket for many more years. He played for Ex Servicemen's Club in the Saturday competition and in the Sunday Competition which ran up until the late 1960's. He was involved in two Saturday premierships and three Sunday Premierships.
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His contribution did not end there. He umpired right up until the 2019/20 season and curated up to four wickets at a time and was still looking after two Showground wickets right to the end of the 2021/22 season.
He loved to be heavily involved in whatever he was doing. He sat in many positions at various levels of country cricket and was highly respected throughout NSW country cricket He was a member of the Showground Trust and was very active in its development. He joined Rotary in 2004 and again his contribution resulted in him receiving the Paul Harris Fellowship award.
Gordon did not go out seeking awards. He was the type of bloke who always volunteered his services before he was asked. He never stopped volunteering.
He fitted in all of his voluntary work around a 20 years plus career at Griffith Council as manager of the town water supply and 20 years plus at the National Parks and Wildlife Service. He fitted in his later years driving school buses. He would still be going if illness had finally now ground him down.
He left us on Wednesday July 20 at the age of 80. What stood out in his last days was the tremendously supportive family that he had. Ruth, Brendan, Andrew and Adrian were constantly at his side.
The respect for Bomber from the community was evident in the number of people who said goodbye in one form or another.
He should not be forgotten.
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