Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

31 their visitors a good game. Middlesex faced a difficult fourth-innings target of 286 in three hours against an attack that included the New Zealand wrist-spinner Bill Merritt. Jack and Syd set off at a brisk canter, putting on 89 in under an hour before Syd was bowled by the slow left-arm of Northamptonshire captain Robert Nelson. 42 When Merritt bowled Edrich 13 runs later Northants must have harboured some slight hope of victory. However, Jack, who made 144, and Compton, batting not only against the clock but against gathering storm clouds, 43 put on 180 runs in 90 minutes, enabling victory to be achieved with an impressive 20 minutes to spare. Compton reached his century in 82 minutes, at the time the fastest of the season, and Jack, not outshone by his illustrious partner, took only 13 minutes longer. Compton was in line for the Lawrence Trophy which was awarded for the fastest hundred of the season. All bets were probably off early next month when Kent’s Les Ames, who had won the trophy in 1936, bettered him by 15 minutes at The Oval. Jack’s good form continued a week later when Middlesex crossed the water to play Hampshire in Newport, Isle of Wight, the second of two first- class games played at the Victoria Recreation Ground. Only an hour’s play was possible on the first day, in which time Syd went to the fast bowling of Giles Baring, a member of the famous banking family, one of a select band of 15 bowlers who have dismissed Don Bradman in first-class cricket without scoring. That Middlesex took their score to 261 all out on Monday on a wet pitch enlivened by steady sunshine was almost entirely due to a partnership of 173 between Edrich, who made 118, and Jack, who was bowled by slow left-armer Stuart Boyes for a polished 97. The next highest score was ten! If the slow outfield had not prevented Jack from getting full value for his shots he would certainly have scored a second successive century. With Smith and Peebles in good form Middlesex won comfortably. Despite a maiden championship duck at Derby (courtesy of Alf Pope, the oldest of Derbyshire’s three cricketing brothers) on a first day on which 26 wickets fell, Jack had passed a thousand runs for the season by the end of July. Syd, however, although he played a few useful innings, had still really not got going and so the aforementioned Bertram Carris was brought in to open. The change wasn’t really a success on either count: Syd still didn’t really spark down the order and after three matches dropped out of the side, whilst Carris passed fifty just once in 12 innings. Other partners were tried briefly but it wasn’t until the last match of the season when Syd was reinstated at the top of the order that a century opening partnership was finally achieved. Meanwhile Jack’s fine form had continued. However, although he had come tantalisingly close with 89 against Nottinghamshire, 87 against Gloucestershire and 92 against Somerset, it took until Middlesex’s penultimate match of the season before he scored a third century. In normal circumstances the visit of Surrey 42 A year later, at the end of August, Nelson made 45 for the British Empire XI against Buccaneers at Lord’s before he was dismissed by future Northamptonshire captain Freddie (F.R.) Brown. Two months later, aged 28, he died when a bomb hit the Royal Marine barracks in Deal. 43 All other matches played that day were severely affected by weather. Remarkably play at Northampton went uninterrupted – just. Gathering Clouds