LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

57 the field Robbie said to Enthoven: ‘I suppose you’re keeping the new ball till after tea?’ His harassed captain halted in his tracks: ‘Oh, dammit,’ he sighed, ‘I’d forgotten all about it.’ That was just the style of captaincy that the Middlesex committee was determined to change. Robbie was an obvious choice, but there were concerns about placing the fortunes of the team in the hands of a player whose experience of captaincy was as a brilliant schoolboy cricketer leading by example, and as right-hand man to Sir Julien Cahn helping him steer his band of mercenaries to a series of victories against weaker opponents in the world of country-house cricket in England and club cricket overseas. And of course the defeat at Nottingham the summer before when, trusted to lead the team for the first time, some thought he threw the game away by stubbornly keeping the bowling in his own and Peebles’ hands when he should have considered the alternatives much sooner, had not helped his case. In Robbie’s favour was the growing sense within the committee of the need for a new direction in the selection of players, away from reliance on talented amateurs. The committee had taken a revolutionary decision and agreed to pay for winter coaching for seven young professionals at the indoor school run by ex-Middlesex player Jack Durston, and were also paying the living costs in London for the young Norfolk allrounder Bill Edrich while he completed his qualification for Middlesex. Looking to the future, the committee took a deep breath and chose Robins, now 28, as their new captain and it would prove to be the best decision they could have made. David Lemmon later commented: ‘His athletic example and his positive and immediate decisions transformed the Middlesex side, roused it from its sense of gloomy despondency and made it play with the dynamism that its captain imposed on it, for, in truth, he left his imprint upon a generation of cricketers.’ The group of players that he inherited was filled with professionals, including the veterans Jack Hearne, aged 44, and Patsy Hendren, aged 46, supported by the experienced wicketkeeper Fred Price, brilliant fielder and reliable batsman George Hart, the leg-spinner Jim Sims, Arsenal footballer and fast bowler Joe Hulme, and big-hitter and fast bowler ‘Big Jim’ Smith. Younger players seeking regular places included Laurie Gray, Len Muncer and Jack Young. Of the amateurs that might be available Robbie would later recall that, as soon as his appointment was announced, his telephone suddenly started ringing with offers from amateurs who fancied playing an occasional first-class match from time to time, but only John Human, a tall, attacking batsman could play the whole season. He could expect occasional appearances from experienced amateurs like George Newman, Gubby Allen, Ian Peebles and ‘Tuppy’ Owen-Smith, and Tom Enthoven would fill in as captain if and when Robbie was on duty for the England Test team. The 1935 season was the summer of the ‘leather jackets’ at Lord’s when crane-fly larvae ravaged the playing surface and in the process of destroying them, the chemicals used also removed much of the grass so that batting Captain of Middlesex