LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

14 1903/04 under the captaincy of Plum Warner, and had played county cricket for Leicestershire from 1895 to 1912. In 1906 he had published his book The Complete Cricketer which C.B.Fry declared was the best book on cricket he had ever read. Knight’s studious approach to the skills of batting, bowling and fielding found an attentive audience among the schoolboys in his charge and would provide the foundation for the more creative talents of Walter Robins. Fourteen-year-old Walter entered Highgate School in April 1921 but was considered not yet ready for the school’s cricket first eleven. Nevertheless, he showed his potential in matches for School House against the other houses, although the school magazine ominously warned that ‘he should prove a good bowler and a useful bat, if he will avoid the pitfalls of youth.’ It seems that at school he was medium-fast bowler, and did not ‘blossom forth’ as a leg-break bowler until later, at university. But when winter arrived and the soccer season began, restrictions of age and size were cast aside and he was welcomed into the school’s football first eleven. The school magazine reported that he was ‘small but full of go. Plays hard all the time.’ The following season, 1922/23, he was appointed captain and described as ‘a clever dribbler and untiring worker who never gives up.’ In 1923/24, now 17, the magazine heaped even more praise on his soccer skills: ‘Robins has proved himself the best captain of recent years and much of the credit for a successful record is due to the keen, energetic and able way in which he discharge the duties of his responsible office.’ In the 1924/25 season, his final winter before going up to Cambridge University, he scored 25 of the school’s 69 goals in their 21 matches. However, it was on the cricket field that Walter’s greatest schoolboy triumphs would be celebrated. In 49 matches for Highgate in the four seasons from 1922 to 1925 he scored 2,459 runs at an average of 53.32 and took 177 wickets at 15.21 apiece. Against Aldenham School in 1924 he scored 206 and took seven for 54. Another outstanding performance in that same year was at Canterbury against King’s School on 8 July, when he opened the batting as usual and scored 67, and followed it up by taking nine wickets as the hosts were skittled out for 36. On returning to Highgate he was summoned to the Headmaster’s study where Dr Johnston told him that it was a great day in the annals of the school. Walter modestly replied that it was one of those lucky occasions as he was dropped a couple of times early on and the opponents were a very young side. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Robins,’ the Headmaster replied, ‘but Highgate and East Molesey Cartoon of Robbie from the Highgate School magazine of 1925.