Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

100 against East Zone, the fiftieth of his career, 136 and shared century opening partnerships with Frank Lowson and Warwickshire wicketkeeper Dick Spooner. With 14 wickets he also topped the side’s bowling averages in first-class matches and Wisden thought that perhaps greater use could have been made of his off spin. 137 Although Jack was the oldest member of the party (with the exception of Derbyshire’s Dusty Rhodes who had to leave the tour early), he was one of only three who missed just four of the 23 first-class matches played. Jack opened with Lowson in the first two Tests and with Spooner in the third. For the last two Tests he dropped down to fill the problematic No.4 position, allowing Spooner to move up to open with Lowson. Writing in the Playfair Cricket Annual Reuter’s correspondent Leslie Smith thought that Jack had been ‘sacrificed in the interests of the team’. England went into the First Test in Delhi with five players making their debuts − the captain, together with Don Kenyon, Donald Carr, Dick Spooner and Fred Ridgway. Opener Vijay Merchant made 154 in India’s only innings. Remarkably it was his last first-class innings. Diving in the field he injured his shoulder and retired at the age of forty with a career average of nearly 72. 138 During the series a number of Indians would make their Test debuts, and three in particular would go on to have considerable Test careers: two batsmen, Pankaj Roy and Vijay Manjrekar, and wrist-spinner Subhash Gupte. After three dull draws England moved on to the Modi Stadium, Kanpur. It was the industrial city’s first Test and a newly laid grass pitch was a paradise for spinners, England winning by eight wickets well inside three days. The match-winners, with 17 wickets between them, were Lancashire pair Malcolm Hilton (left arm) and Roy Tattersall (off spin), but England were also indebted to Glamorgan’s Allan Watkins for his fighting first innings 66, the highest individual score in a match in which the prolific Hazare made a pair. Jack’s contribution with the bat was limited, but he struck crucially with the ball in India’s second innings, breaking a troublesome sixth-wicket partnership by dismissing Umrigar, caught by Spooner, and then bowling C.S.Nayudu in the same over. 139 Unfortunately England couldn’t hold on to their lead, losing the final Test by an innings at Madras, where for only the second time on the tour the side was split up and stayed with different British families. It was India’s first Test victory at their twenty-fifth attempt. There had been great interest in the match and the ground was full well before the start. Howard having stood down with pleurisy, Donald Carr took over the captaincy. During the afternoon 136 Five years later, one of the East Zone bowlers, left-arm medium-pacer Prem Chatterjee, would take ten for 20 for Bengal against Assam, the third-best bowling analysis in first-class cricket. He also made a useful 37 in the East Zone second innings before Jack bowled him. 137 But surprisingly did not review his batting in its summary of the tour. 138 His 154, in seven and a half hours, was an Indian Test record, which Hazare, with 164 not out in eight hours 35 minutes, regained in the same innings! Opinions differed as to whether India’s slow progress was due to rivalry between the two batsmen, or a safety-first policy adopted in order to preclude defeat. 139 Apparently senior professional Allan Watkins should be given the credit for the inspired suggestion that Jack should have a go: Miller, Douglas, Allan Watkins: A True All-Rounder , ACS Publications, 2007. On Tour Again