LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

15 Douglas Lowe has just won the Olympic 800 metres final in Paris!’ While Walter was attending Highgate School, his uncle Vernon had accepted the position of Secretary of the National Union of Manufacturers whose London offices were in Holborn, and moved with his wife Eva to Kingston upon Thames. With no children of their own they took great interest in the progress of their nephews Walter and Vernon. From a cricketing point of view Uncle Vernon’s arrival in the south brought the Robins family even closer together because he immediately joined the East Molesey Cricket Club at Hampton, next to the River Thames, which was near his new home, and soon persuaded Vivian and Mabel to move nearer the club so that Vivian could do the same. During the summer school holidays, Walter and his brother Vernon, the latter now at University College School, enjoyed being taken to East Molesey to watch the matches at the weekend and particularly during the Club’s cricket week at the end of July. After his impressive successes at Highgate in 1924, Walter had hopes of being given a place in the East Molesey eleven that year but most of the adults were unwilling to risk the inclusion of a schoolboy. Uncle Vernon did not agree and had a word with his friend Alfred Forsdike, the captain of Surbiton Cricket Club, who deliberately brought his team two players short for their annual fixture. It was agreed that both Walter and Vernon could be co-opted into the visitors’ eleven and after winning the toss Forsdike sent his new recruits Highgate and East Molesey The Highgate School side of 1924, the first year of Robbie’s captaincy. Standing (l to r): R.C.Clarke, K.B.Moore, C.R.Orr, J.W.Luck (wk), C.O.M.Morris, C.W.Fry. Seated: R.L.Stuart, G.N.Paxton, R.W.V.Robins (capt), J.A.Carter, G.D.Hodson.