A cultured and prolific opening batsman, Brookes was the first professional skipper at Northamptonshire, and became both county president and a Justice of the peace.
After being spotted playing club cricket as a teenager, he joined Northamptonshire in 1934, making his debut against Yorkshire in 1934, aged 18.
Brookes quickly became a regular in the county team, but his career was interrupted by the Second World War, in which he served as a sergeant-instructor in the RAF.
[1] Northampton's fortunes revived in 1949, when Freddie Brown became captain of Northamptonshire, and the team finished the season fifth in the County Championship.
The team included Frank Tyson and Keith Andrew, and Australians Jock Livingston, Jack Manning and George Tribe, and enjoyed a successful period under his leadership, coming seventh in the County Championship in 1954 and 1955, fourth in 1956, and achieving its highest-ever placing, second, in 1957.
In 1947, in a match between Northamptonshire and Somerset, Arthur Wellard, was bowling rather well, when Brookes, who was batting, played a false stroke through the slips beating the eccentric Boss Meyer (the founder of Millfield School) as he was too crippled by lumbago to bend down to catch it.