Wells was born and raised in Gloucester, and educated at local school Linden Road Secondary.

He was a right-handed tail-end batsman and off-break bowler who played in 302 first-class matches between 1951 and 1965, for Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Wells was unable to retain a place in his native County side through the emergence of David Allen who was a far superior batsman.

As described by The Guardian in 2011:[1] ...there's no chance of a recurrence of one of the game's greatest ever scenes, which starred, as so many do, Gloucestershire's incorrigible spinner Bryan "Bomber" Wells.

A fielder dislodged the bails at the other end and the umpire, Alec Skelding, professed himself to be as confused as the four batsmen.

Wells claimed to have bowled the fastest over in cricket, during the time it took for the bells of Worcester Cathedral to strike 12 o'clock.

He describes how on his very first match for Gloucestershire he had to borrow kit in order to play and travelled to the game on the bus.