Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

106 Rebuilding more matches than eventual champions, Surrey. However, their next three matches all resulted in defeat, Compton and Edrich away at the crucial Oval Test missing the first two, and again they finished fifth. Sensibly the Middlesex captaincy was changed, with Compton resigning to become vice-captain to Edrich, and Jack as senior professional. Despite the disappointment of again faltering towards the end of the season, Middlesex had much reason for satisfaction in the advances made by the two young allrounders Fred Titmus and Don Bennett, and the performances of Alan Moss who was selected for MCC’s tour of the West Indies in the following winter. Jack and Syd had contrasting seasons. Syd in his benefit year made nearly 1,500 runs in all matches at an average of thirty. As well as centuries at Westcliff-on-Sea and Southampton, he will have been well pleased with the two typically robust and well-received fifties he made in his benefit match against Sussex. London was packed with crowds who had come to see the Coronation route and its illuminated decorations. It was appropriately glorious weather and among the large Lord’s crowd basking in Whit Saturday sunshine were guests of Sir Pelham Warner, the Crown Prince of Japan (I’m not sure if he was a cricket fan) and former Prime Minister Clement Attlee (definitely a fan) and his wife. The crowd showed their appreciation of Syd’s service to the county by donating a generous £300 to a collection on his behalf, and they in return were richly entertained by Compton who celebrated his thirty-fifth birthday by making a sparkling century. The crowd reciprocated by singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Syd’s benefit eventually produced £5,700, equivalent to about £132,000 in 2012. It was well supported. The crowd when Middlesex played at Kenton 146 in the middle of July was over 3,000 and the match raised some £200, whilst against Harrow Town in mid September, the attendance of 1,500 was thought to be the biggest-ever on the ground for a match. At the close, in thanking the club and supporters for their generosity, Syd said that it was particularly appropriate that his last benefit match should be on a ground close to his old school at Headstone less than a couple of miles away. 147 While it had been a very satisfying benefit match for Syd, it was less so for Jack. First, backing up too far, he ran himself out for 11 on the first morning and then, having a bowl in the Sussex first innings, sustained a groin injury and was unable to bat again. Given that Middlesex had a well-balanced spin attack with Compton and Young to bowl left arm and Titmus off spin, it is surprising that Jack was even needed, albeit that Sussex made 386 for eight declared. He had started the season well with centuries against Cambridge University and Hampshire, but the injury meant that he missed eight championship matches in the middle of the season. With a century at Derby in the second match after his return, the rest seemed to have done him some good; he was, however, clearly playing below his best and failed to reach fifty once over the remainder of the 146 A strong Harrow-based club that often staged benefit matches. 147 Curiously the Harrow Town match was not listed in the fund’s final statement.