LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

78 Chapter Nine Disappointment Robbie looked forward to another opportunity to overtake Yorkshire in the 1938 season with a Middlesex team full of young players about to realise their potential. But with the Australians arriving for a series of five Tests, he realised that he may have to play a part-time role as county skipper as he expected the England selectors to ask him to continue as captain of England. That dream was about to be jeopardised by the announcement that Gubby Allen had decided to make a comeback playing first-class cricket that summer and, once he had proved that he was fully fit, apparently expected to be re-instated as England‘s captain. Robbie was encouraged to believe that he was the front-runner for the England appointment when he was asked to captain MCC against Surrey in the opening match of the season at Lord’s. This was followed by leading Middlesex to two successive championship victories. Gubby had not yet started playing and with the Australian tourists expected next at Lord’s to play their traditional match against MCC, Warner and the other selectors were anxious that he should lead the side so that they could assess his fitness. Their request was refused and according to Jim Swanton: ‘Gubby, who was at the meeting, said he was not prepared to expose himself this early. A fairly heated discussion followed and Plum was upset by his declining, to put it mildly.’ The selectors turned to Robbie again, who was delighted at the opportunity to revive his friendship with Bradman. Middlesex lost their next game, to Lancashire, and then Gubby Allen rode in with all guns blazing to revive the county’s fortunes by playing a major role in an innings victory over Nottinghamshire, followed by another over Worcestershire, contributing 64 and 53 and ten wickets from 47 overs. He was due to play next day for Middlesex against the Australians, but his back trouble had returned and he cried off. That weekend the selectors announced the teams for the trial match at Lord’s on the following Wednesday and named Hammond as captain of an ‘England XI’ and Allen as the captain of a ‘Rest of England XI’. At the start of the season Hammond had said that he would in future be playing as an amateur and had just acquired some necessary captaincy experience by taking over as captain of Gloucestershire in their last two county matches. This development had excited Warner, who saw Hammond as potentially an ideal captain of the England Test team. Robbie’s omission from either side in the trial came as a shock, but the final decision concerning the Test series had yet to be made. Allen had assumed that he was still the obvious choice and he resented the trial selection, according to Swanton: ‘Gubby was angry that the captain’s roles were not reversed. In the event he declined, saying he