Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

61 things going with a brisk 58 before Jack was needlessly run out. The match resulted in another comfortable Middlesex victory. Jack’s form had been getting him closer to an England call-up and he had been named as twelfth man for the Third Test at Old Trafford. He was never likely to play, but at least it showed he was in the selectors’ thoughts. The Fourth Test was to be played on the other side of the Pennines. No changes were made in batting line-up, except that this time Washbrook’s opening partner, Winston Place, was nominated as twelfth man instead of Jack. Strangely however, it was announced that, should Hutton be unfit to play, Jack would take his place. Therefore, although he had the honour of being in the twelve, Place was not first reserve. Our man at The Times was of the opinion that if Hutton didn’t play Gloucestershire’s Charlie Barnett should move up to open, leaving Jack to go in lower down to push the score on and tame a second new ball. It was all academic. Hutton played, and scored a century. Place had to wait until the following winter for his Test debut. Playing three matches against West Indies, he made a century in the last Test − and was never picked again! Jack did at least have the consolation of selection for the first time for the Players against the Gentlemen at Lord’s in mid July in a match that continued to bring together in opposition the best cricketers in the country. It was an honour to be selected and, as the most important match outside the Tests, it was also in effect a Test trial. Jack would play in four more such matches, averaging 25 in ten innings, with two fifties. The professionals were usually in the ascendancy, but sometimes it was close as they won by four wickets in 1949, 21 runs in 1951, and by just two runs the following year. The Gentlemen could put out some very good sides. In 1947 it included Bill Edrich, Reg Simpson, Freddie Brown, Norman Yardley, Trevor Bailey and the great New Zealand left-hander Martin Donnelly (studying at Oxford University) who entranced a first day Wednesday crowd of 16,000 with a masterful 162 not out, over half his side’s score. With Hutton having pulled out ill, Jack moved up to open with Washbrook in a partnership which reached 53 before he was leg-before to Lancashire’s Ken Cranston. With the Players’ captain Les Ames going soon after, the day closed with Edrich bowling to Denis Compton. A stump microphone might have picked up some interesting banter. With rain about, the match was eventually drawn. The England team to play South Africa in the Fifth Test had been announced during the first Surrey match and Jack had finally been chosen. If he had not been selected the Playfair Cricket Annual said ‘there might have been a revolution near the Tavern’. Among a number of congratulatory telegrams received was one from Jack Durston, and another from Turnham Green Cricket Club. The Times enthusiastically commented that ‘no one can gainsay the propriety of Howorth ( Worcestershire ) and Robertson gaining a place’. In his next innings Jack celebrated his selection by scoring another century, his third in succession, while everybody else struggled against the leg spin of Kent’s Doug Wright. The South Africans had come up against Compton and Edrich at their uncontrollable best, and England’s 3-0 lead in Champions