Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

101 On Tour Again of the first day the death of King George VI was announced and the second day was made the rest day. England’s batting failed both times against the spin of Mankad who took 12 wickets in the match. With scores of 77 and 56 Jack’s contribution could not be faulted. Indian celebrations at the end were a little subdued, perhaps because, as Carr remembered, they thought that England’s performance had been affected by the death of the King. Carr, however, thought they were just tired and beaten by a better side. It was the last of Jack’s 11 Tests. In England’s next Test new captain Len Hutton would take Reg Simpson to the wicket with him, and later in the series, David Sheppard. Jack had made a century in his last Test in England, top-scored in both innings of his last Test, and finished with 881 runs at an average of 46. No wonder many thought he should have been chosen more often. 140 The tour ended with three weeks in Ceylon, a visit that had been originally planned to coincide with the now-cancelled arrival of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip for the Colombo Grand Exhibition. The visit wasn’t quite as relaxing as MCC had hoped as their first opponents were a strong Commonwealth XI, made even stronger by the inclusion of Keith Miller and Neil Harvey, and they were heavily beaten. After his fine showing in the Madras Test, Jack was brought down to earth by his old adversary Miller who, making the ball fly on a fast pitch, first knocked his cap off, and then dismissed him twice without scoring. It was the only pair of his career. Finally the team left for home. As the S.S.Chusan sailed back through the Mediterranean, Geoffrey Howard remembered standing on the deck with Jack. In an interesting insight both into his personality, and the times, he recalled: Jack Robertson – what a lovely man he was, such a reliable tourist – and we were playing London Underground. Making the noises of the motors and the doors shutting, and making each other laugh. Then we listened to the Budget. The last item reported was that petrol was going up to three shillings and sixpence a gallon. And Jack said, ‘I can’t wait to get home and sell the car. I’m not paying three and sixpence a gallon for petrol. 141 Jack clearly took an interest in petrol: in a fancy dress night on the ship he went as a petrol pump. In Jack’s obituary in the Middlesex County Cricket Club Annual Review 1996/97 Howard summed up his contribution to the tour: ‘A stalwart on and off the field, he was an example to us all.’ 140 A couple of esoteric, but still significant, points (courtesy of the excellent Mosts Without in Test Cricket , written and published in 2003 by Keith Walmsley): each of Jack’s 11 Test appearances had been at different venues, not a record, but a high number, and he was not dismissed for single figures in any of his last 13 Test innings, again not a record, but a high number. 141 The Middlesex team usually travelled to away matches by car. According to his biographer, scorer Patsy Hendren was very particular about his driver. He was wary of the ‘more dashing school’, such as Compton and Edrich. Jack ‘was the most highly regarded as being competent and reliable’. Peebles, Ian, ‘ Patsy Hendren’ : The Cricketer and His Times, Macmillan, 1969. In 1951 only about one in seven households in Britain had a car (or van) compared with three out of four now.