Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

60 intervention to ensure victory. With the eighth wicket falling at 161 and plenty of time left Middlesex were almost there. However, Wade, who had come in at No.10, and 21-year-old Cambridge undergraduate Doug Insole (63), frustrated Middlesex in a partnership of 83. Robins had just about run out of ideas when Insole unwisely took a risky second run to Syd down at long leg and failed to beat an accurate return from one of the best deep fielders in the country. Even then Wade and Trevor Bailey, batting down the order because of an injured hand, added a further 49 before Bailey, perhaps uncharacteristically, left the crease and was stumped. It was an important win, ensuring that Middlesex remained only 12 points behind Gloucestershire, having played two matches fewer. It was ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’ for Jack and Syd in their next match as they contributed little to a Middlesex win at Northampton. However, as Edrich made a first-innings 267 not out and Compton 110 (and took nine wickets), they were allowed a quiet match. And then, with Compton and Edrich away, it was back to business at Trent Bridge. After the earlier record partnership against them Nottinghamshire were let off lightly this time, the first wicket falling at a mere 154. Jack with 118 dominated the stand and became the first Middlesex batsman to score a century before lunch on the first day on two occasions. Ten years later he would achieve the feat a third time. In the next match, at showery Hove, Jack and Syd took 17 runs from the first over of the last innings, bowled by left-armer Jack Nye, to set up a successful Middlesex run-chase which left them equal on points at the top of the table with Gloucestershire, and with a match in hand. 78 The Middlesex way of winning matches, and the contribution that their openers made to the season, was probably no better exemplified than at The Oval in early August. In dazzling sunshine the gates were closed on the first day. With Middlesex declaring at 537 for two from 118 overs, the 30,000 present had their money’s worth. The score had reached 211, compiled at more than a run a minute, before Jack was cleverly caught (one-handed) and bowled by Eric Bedser for 127. Syd went soon after, unluckily missing his century by two runs, bowled by the energetic Stuart Surridge who would soon be leading Surrey to unsurpassed glory. Edrich and Compton were first and second in the national batting averages, and a score of 250 for two on a perfect pitch on a hot summer afternoon was all the encouragement they needed as they added 287 in two and three quarter hours. Even three overs of leg spin from wicketkeeper Arthur McIntyre couldn’t dislodge them as they both hit not-out centuries. After this exhilarating first day things reverted to normality and, although Surrey scored freely, they were dismissed twice by lunch on the third day, mainly thanks to Compton (twelve for 174), who found a dusting pitch to his liking and bowled his side to another victory with his left-arm wrist- spin. The two sides reconvened at Lord’s two weeks later where, despite the counter-attraction of the opening day of the Football League season, some 25,000 saw Middlesex declare at 462 for seven. Jack and Syd had got 78 In the first innings Robertson and Brown had got Middlesex off to ‘their customary flying start’. Champions