Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

70 in to him. 94 This is a fair judgement because, by the end of his career, the four bowlers who dismissed him most often (ten times) were Alec Bedser (Surrey) and Cliff Gladwin (Derbyshire), two mostly inswing bowlers; Derek Shackleton (Hampshire), who mainly bowled inswing at the start of his career but soon widened his repertoire; and Bert Nutter (Lancashire and Northamptonshire). There were of course many bowlers able to move the ball about on the uncovered pitches of the time, and the first three named above in particular caused many fine batsmen considerable trouble in their illustrious careers. Syd, like Jack, would have faced them many times. Syd had another considerable string to his bow: he was one of the finest outfielders in the country, quick to the ball and, with an immaculate throw, quick to get it back. E.W.Swanton, reporting in The Daily Telegraph on the Middlesex v Essex match at Lord’s in 1947, said that he had ‘given an exhibition of fielding at the longer distances that touched the heights’, and Wisden 1948 commented that ‘his work in the outfield was unsurpassed by anyone in the country’. Syd contributed an article on fielding to Jack’s 1951 benefit brochure. He clearly saw it as an attacking aspect of the game: ‘A good out-fielder does not wait for the ball to come to him, but runs to meet it.’ This skill had other uses: Rob Brown remembers a visit to a local fairground when his father was banned from a coconut shy because he kept winning – suggesting that even in his fifties Syd still had a keen eye and a good arm. Ironically, in 1938 The Cricketer had assessed him as ‘a little slow in the field’! E.M.Wellings recalled a particularly memorable catch at The Oval in August 1949. Early in the Surrey innings the left-handed Fishlock hit the ball hard and high towards the scoreboard. Syd was stationed at long on but ran far and fast catching the ball just inside the boundary. His impetus was such that he carried the ball over the boundary. It would be a six now, but under the Laws of the day Fishlock had to go. Later in the month he again demonstrated his catching prowess against the New Zealanders, this time closer in. Merv Wallace, the side’s vice-captain, had made 58 when Young dropped one slightly short to him. Wallace pulled the ball hard to midwicket where Syd dived three yards to his left and caught the ball one-handed six inches above the ground, a feat enthusiastically applauded by a crowd of some 20,000. Although primarily an outfielder, Syd was a handy wicketkeeper, usually getting the chance when Leslie Compton took the new ball for a few overs when Middlesex were short of pace. 95 And when Jim Sims took all ten wickets for East against West at Kingston-upon- Thames in 1948, he even made a couple of stumpings. Syd’s career had finished before the advent of limited-overs cricket, but with his hard-hitting batting and brilliant fielding it is a format in which he would have surely flourished. 94 West, Peter (Editor), Playfair Cricket Annuals 1949 and 1950, Playfair Books, 1950 and 1951. 95 When Middlesex met Surrey at The Oval in 1947, unusually both Compton and the Surrey keeper Arthur McIntyre took a turn with the ball. Style