Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

35 border, but once the German offensive began in May 1940, the BEF was quickly driven back towards the coast and Jack and his co-driver, having been dispatched on a last-minute errand and nearly getting lost, were eventually forced to abandon their lorry and hope for the best at Dunkirk. After spending three nerve-wracking days under attack on the beaches Jack became part of the miracle of Dunkirk and was picked up and taken out to H.M.S.Vanquisher and home. 50 Conditions on the returning ships were uncomfortable for the tired, hungry, but relieved, troops with as many packed in as possible. Jack at least found some comfort in the fact that one of the first faces he saw on the journey back was an old school friend who was now an officer on the Vanquisher. Eminent cricket writer David Frith got to know Jack in later years: ‘It was easy to imagine how cool and disciplined he must have been in an emergency with which no mere cricket match could compare.’ 51 Joyce and Jack were now engaged. They had been due to be married while he was trapped abroad. This of course was the least of Joyce’s worries since for a time she had no idea what had happened to her fiancé and whether he was even coming back. On disembarkation at Dover Jack was first taken to Bulford Camp, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, and then, finally reunited with Joyce, the rearranged marriage took place later in the month at Christ Church which stands on the edge of Turnham Green. The newly wed couple set up home not far from Devonshire Road at 40 Netheravon Road. Four years later their son Ian was born. After Jack’s death Joyce recalled that they never had a row; if they disagreed, they agreed to disagree. Jack’s qualities were quickly spotted and he was selected for officer cadet training, much of which was spent in Barmouth and Capel Curig in north-west Wales. 52 His first commissioned appointment was with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment in Halifax where a general with sporting interests picked him out as an ideal battle-school instructor, perhaps because, apart from his general athletic ability, according to his 1951 benefit brochure he was an expert skater and swimmer. Halifax was a convenient posting. It meant that, as leave permitted, Jack could play in some good-class Yorkshire club cricket in and around the area. Battle school instruction was tough. Troops were trained to meet and overcome the dangers and hardships they would experience when they went into battle − crawling through ditches, fording rivers, marching at the double, extreme exhaustion and so on. And the use of live ammunition meant that there were fatalities, even in training. Jack ended the war as a captain, based at Morton Hall Battle School, Attlebridge, north-west of Norwich, Joyce moving with him and staying at a nearby farm. In an article in the 50 The Clyde-built destroyer Vanquisher made seven trips to Dunkirk, rescuing some 2,700 troops. 51 The Cricketer , June 2012 52 In commenting on the wartime promotions of some professional cricketers Eric Midwinter suggested that this indicated that ‘… between the wars, the lot and the character of the professional cricketer had improved and men like Robertson and Verity were confident, articulate and unafraid of responsibility …’. Midwinter, Eric, The Lost Seasons: Cricket in Wartime; 1939-45, Methuen, 1987. Intermission