LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

53 Part-Time Cricket the occasion a public holiday was declared.’ The game was played in front of a massive crowd, some perched in the branches of trees, and included troops from the British Army garrison. Gambling was rife. Robbie won the toss and elected to bat, seemingly a good choice with the team 66 for two at lunch. Then Somerset brought Arthur Simons on to bowl and at fast-medium pace, pitching on the leg-stump and hitting the off, he took seven for 19 reducing the visitors to 85 all out. Robbie decided to open the bowling himself with Peebles at the other end and soon nine wickets were down for 70. The game was unexpectedly held up while drinks were brought on to the field by a sergeant of the Northumberland Fusiliers who said to Peebles, ‘For gawd’s sake get this over, sir, the troops have got every button they could raise on you.’ But twelve more runs were quickly added and with only four runs needed to win Robbie was hit high over mid off. George Heane started to run from deep extra cover and measured the flight of the ball perfectly, which he caught a foot over his head. The joyful soldiers poured onto the field and carried Heane shoulder high to the pavilion, where Sir Julien was also seized, ‘somewhat to his alarm, and borne aloft likewise’. With all this excitement, it is perhaps not surprising Swanton commented that ‘Walter Robins always said this was the most thrilling game he ever saw or played in.’ Defeat was also only narrowly avoided in the final game of the tour and, as Sir Julien had hoped, he and his players could sail home undefeated. There was time for a few days in New York before leaving on the R.M.S.Aquitania . As Peebles was fully occupied with an American actress on the voyage — the fair sex were a hazard for international sportsmen, Robbie included, long before the twenty-first century — Robbie perhaps had more time alone to ponder on his future. He concluded that this must be outside the Nottingham Furnishing Company and away from the generosity of Sir Julien Cahn which came at a price he now felt unable to pay. Inevitably, not all the scores of the Cahn matches have survived, so it is difficult to summarise his cricket with the eleven. Robbie is known, however, to have scored 4,614 runs at 30, and taken 720 wickets at close to 11 for the side. His highest score was 148 against Staffordshire at Porthill in 1933 and his best bowling return eight for 22 against Hampstead C.C. at Hampstead in 1932.