LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

79 was not fit, and did not again appear in first-class cricket until July. He was upset, not only by the decision, but by the fact that Warner had given him no prior notice of it.’ Warner hadn’t spoken to Robbie either, but at no time does Swanton make any reference to Robbie’s more legitimate claim to the position of captain, or that Allen was prepared to push him aside. In the meantime, Robbie got on with the job in hand, trying to lead his Middlesex team to victory over the Australians. Rain ruled out any play on the first day but then the match had a sensational start with the visitors all out for 132. Middlesex collapsed to 92 for five but then Robbie joined Compton and they added 68 runs, 43 of them from the captain on the counter-attack. The Australian were 56 runs behind when they started their second innings on the last day but there was not enough time for either side to win the match. However, there was time for someone to add his name to the record books, thanks to Robbie and Bradman putting their heads together during the tea interval. Edrich needed only another ten runs to have completed 1,000 runs during the month of May, not achieved since Hallows did it in 1928. Instead of batting on to close of play, Robbie asked Bradman to declare when they cleared the arrears and added enough runs to prevent Middlesex from going for a win, leaving Edrich time to open the batting and score the runs he needed. At 5.09 pm Bradman did as he had been asked and ended his team’s second innings at 114 for two, giving Middlesex just six overs to make 59. Edrich only needed eleven minutes to reach his milestone and Middlesex ended at 21 for no wicket. The Test Trial proceeded as arranged, with Wilcox of Essex taking the place of Allen, and immediately after, when Hammond was confirmed as the new England captain, Robbie confided to Kathleen that being passed over was easily the biggest disappointment of his life. During the month of May Middlesex had won four of their five county matches and were top of the table, well in front of Yorkshire, who had only won two of their five and been overtaken by Lancashire. As the counties continued to play an unequal number of games and Yorkshire had increased their programme to 30 matches with Middlesex still at 24, the championship title was now calculated on an average ‘points per match’ basis. Determined to demonstrate that, whether England’s captain or not, he was the best allrounder available, Robbie hit 137 against Sussex at Lord’s, his highest championship score, and then took six for 69 forcing Sussex to follow on. It was during this match that he learned that Dr Johnston had passed away on 5 June, two years after retiring as head of Highgate School. Always interested in ballistics, Johnston had just completed a series of articles being published in The Cricketer under the title ‘The Revolutions of a Cricket Ball and Their Revelations’ in which he explained, on mathematical principles, the mysteries of ‘spin’ and ‘swerve’. Kathleen recalls that ‘a great deal of this was written at our home at Burnham, Bucks, usually at night after dinner. Following one or two mishaps with the cricket ball, they resorted to oranges, and the talk with an occasional thump would go on well after Mrs Johnston and I had retired.’ Disappointment