LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

87 avoidance of defeat.’ Music to Robbie’s ears! In 1945, the war in Europe was reaching its end and there were plans for three two-day matches between England and the Australian Services. The first was to be at Lord’s over Whitsun, then Sheffield in June and back to Lord’s in August. The announcement of Victory in Europe Day on 7 May 1945 prompted MCC to upgrade the matches to first-class by adding an extra day and although it was made clear that they were not official Test matches, they soon became known as ‘Victory Tests’. A third match at Lord’s was slotted in for July and later the two-day Lancashire match against the Australian Services planned for Old Trafford in August was allocated a third day and renamed England versus Australian Services so that there was now a five-match series. Robbie was asked to play in the first ‘Test’, at Lord’s, beginning on Saturday, 19 May. According to Mark Rowe: ‘It was as great a show as England cricket would ever put on. After wartime safekeeping, the paintings in the Long Room were on the walls again. Members, everyone who was anyone in cricket and public life were there.’ The England team, captained by Hammond, contained seven players with Test experience: of the Australians, only the captain, Lindsay Hassett, had played Test cricket. When Robbie joined Edrich on the afternoon of the third day, England were 218 for five in their second innings, only 30 runs in front. They both began to score steadily and the game was drifting to a draw when Hammond was persuaded that the public deserved a thrilling finish. At 5.15 pm the batsmen received instructions to give away their wickets Hammond later wrote: ‘I am quite confident that Robins and Edrich could have batted easily another half-hour but that would have meant a drawn game.’ Both batsmen responded immediately and were out caught going for a big hit, and the last four batsmen made only seven runs between them. So, at 5.50 pm the Australians started their second innings needing to make 107 runs by stumps at 7 pm. The first two wickets fell for only 11 runs before Hassett and Pepper added 52 runs to take them nearer to the target. The 16,000 crowd kept up a continuous roar as Pepper then began to hit out at nearly every ball. At the start of the final over, the Australians needed five runs to win and just made it with two balls to spare. The Cricketer reported: ‘A draw would have been something of an anti-climax,’ and Robbie agreed that, win or lose, it was the way the game of cricket should be played. Ominously Hammond added a word of warning that the public ‘cannot hope for such cricket in official Test matches. There is too much at stake.’ The year 1945 ended with the good news for the Robins family that Kathleen had given birth to another son, born on 16 November and named George Richard Vernon. The War Years