Born on April 1st 1958 in Christchurch, Canterbury, former Test and ODI opening bowler for New Zealand, Sue Brown.
Sue made her First Class debut for Canterbury at fifteen years of age in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield in season 1973/74. The youngster was runout for a duck batting at number eleven in the first innings and only got to bowl in the second innings. Unusual because opening the bowling with her medium pacers was her main role. Mind you, it was a team stacked with good bowling options – Jackie Lord, Sue Rattray and captain Pat Carrick. The following season Sue was given the new ball and held onto it for the rest of her career.
In 1978/79 Sue is selected in the White Ferns team to tour Australia and makes her debut in the first Test at Sydney. Opening the bowling she takes two wickets (2-53) in the only innings her team bowled, removing Peta Cook (Verco) and Aussie skipper Sharon Tredrea.
Sue played all three Tests of that series and collected her best Test figures of 3-64 at the Adelaide Oval. She also went on the Test tour to England in 1984, again playing all three Tests, dismissing Megan Lear and Carole Hodges in taking 2-71 at Headingley.
Sue’s ODI debut came at the World Cup of 1981/82 at home in New Zealand. The first match she played in was against England and resulted in a tie. It was the first of a sixteen match career over which she would take 19 wickets at 16.21 runs per wicket. Her best bowling figures were 2-3, during that World Cup where she removed both openers, Gargi Banerjee and Fowzieh Khalili.