LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

24 Hotspur with Robbie scoring the winning goal. The Varsity Match was played at Stamford Bridge as usual and all seemed lost when Oxford were 3-1 up at half-time. Some inspiring words from Robbie and a second goal from Bryan Valentine immediately brought Cambridge back into the game but the conditions were against them and they were vulnerable to the physically robust game of Oxford who ended winners 6-2. Before returning to university for the Lent Term in January 1928, Robbie was invited to play again for the Corinthians. Having reached the fourth round of the FA Cup the season before, the ambitious amateur club was looking for young, fast, creative footballers like Robbie and he was soon to become a regular member of the side. * * * * * * * Over the Easter holidays of 1928, Robbie and Duleepsinhji, who had now recovered from his illness and was eager to pick up from where he had left off the season before, spent as much time as they could at the Faulkner School. Robbie was delighted to be reunited with Ian Peebles who had just returned from South Africa with much to tell of his Test debut. His joy was short-lived when Peebles told him that he had fallen out with Faulkner but agreed to work during the Easter vacation before leaving. This spurred Robbie on to even greater efforts to develop and improve his bowling technique while he could still take advantage of his friends’ advice and encouragement. This intense period would pay huge dividends in the summer to come but was interrupted abruptly by an urgent call from the Corinthians, who were on tour in Denmark, seeking reinforcements to replace injured players for the second leg of the tour in Germany. Robbie arrived in time to play in the game at Hanover won by the tourists 2-1, followed by a goal-less draw at Hamburg against the German champions. Their boat left Hamburg for England soon after and Robbie was back in Cambridge in time for the start of the cricket season. In the third match against Yorkshire, the reigning champions, Robbie had his first experience of a ‘king pair’. But he was not alone struggling against the bowling of Emmott Robinson who took eight for 13 while Cambridge were dismissed for 30 and had only reached 41 for five when the game ended in a draw. Many years later Robbie told Freddie Trueman the story of his second dismissal in that match. When he made his way to the wicket at 19 for three, he passed Wilfred Rhodes fielding at close gully who said: ‘You got nought in the first innings didn’t you, young man?’ Robbie replied: ‘Yes, Mr Rhodes, I did.’ Rhodes then asked him if he had ever made a pair to which Robbie answered: ‘No, no, I haven‘t,’ to which the obliging old Yorkshireman replied: ‘Oh, we’ll give ye wun to get off the mark,’ waving to the fieldsmen in the covers to drop back. The bowler was Maurice Leyland and, after Rhodes had lulled Robbie into feeling that he could just play at the ball for a simple single into the space on the off-side, Rhodes had instructed Leyland to bowl a little higher and wider than usual. As the ball turned quickly it came off the edge of Robbie’s bat pushing forward for Rhodes to snap up an easy catch with the comment: ‘Bad luck, son, you tried to hit it too hard.’ As Robbie turned to walk back to the pavilion Cambridge and Aubrey Faulkner