LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

20 Cambridge and Aubrey Faulkner contributed 17 to a stand of 75 with Patsy Hendren while the veteran completed another century. The strike was called off on 11 May and Robbie went back to Cambridge where he was asked to play in another freshmen’s trial. Scoring a bright 64 for the Etceteras against the Perambulators he was called up for the eleven about to play the touring Australian team which included such giants as Collins, Bardsley, MaCartney, Woodfull, Richardson, Ryder, Grimmett and Mailey. At the end of a rain-reduced first day, Cambridge were 134 for five with Robbie not out on one. The next morning he battled on for some time on a wet, awkward wicket before being caught off Ryder for only nine. Even so, as he returned to the pavilion his confidence was given a boost by praise from Charlie Macartney through a well-chewed blade of grass: ‘Well plied, bluey.’ He was bowled by Grimmett for nought on the final day and the match was drawn, but his captain Tom Enthoven had been so impressed with his enthusiasm and the high quality of his fielding, that Robbie was now certain of a place for the rest of the season. His fielding was forever after outstanding. In one edition of his Book of Cricket , Pelham Warner put him as one of 25 fielders in his ‘Honour School of Cricket’ and, elsewhere in the same volume, refers to the standard of his fielding at cover point, short leg and gully. Robbie was not called upon to bowl for Cambridge in any of the nine games he played that summer and in eight of those games he only managed to score 140 runs with a highest score of 32. But it was another story when it came to playing in the University match at Lord’s. It was played in miserable weather and in a low-scoring game Robbie made 37 in the Cambridge first innings of 178 and when he went to the wicket at 148 for five in their second innings with a lead of only 164 he finished unbeaten with 21 while another vital 43 runs were added for the last five wickets. It was just enough to beat Oxford by 34 runs. He went on to play three more games for Middlesex that year and ended the season with only 86 runs from his seven innings in a total of six matches. Despite all the encouragement and support he was receiving, there was still a long way to go before he could be certain of a regular place in a county eleven. But a far greater challenge faced him which could not be avoided, no matter how many runs or goals he scored – his first-year examinations. With so much cricket and football to play, Robbie had found little time for academic work, so the College, reluctant to lose such an outstanding sportsman, suggested that he should request a change to the subjects he was reading for his degree and therefore postpone an examination for another twelve months. This was arranged and Robbie could rejoin his football team-mates in October for another series of matches in preparation for the Varsity match in December. By comparison with the team of mainly freshmen at the start of the previous season, the 1926 football ‘squad’ included nine old Blues, including Robbie, and Cambridge went on to win seven of their thirteen