Lives in Cricet No 33 - Jack Robertson and Syd Brown

7 flamboyant opposites.’ Others have made a similar point. Bob White had a long first-class career with Middlesex and Nottinghamshire. He admired Jack’s modest and undemonstrative personality, but thought it might have been part of the reason why he didn’t play for England as much as he should. If he had been a bit pushier, who knows? Jack clearly didn’t do sledging. But he could still get his point across. Once while a young Bob White was on the Lord’s groundstaff, and should have been selling scorecards, he remembers sneaking off to the Mound Stand to watch Jack bat against Fred Trueman. Fred was having trouble dislodging him and so eventually in exasperation he overstepped the crease by some distance, a deliberate no-ball, and let Jack have a bouncer. Jack managed to avoid decapitation and gloved the ball down to fine leg. He wandered down the pitch, gave it a tap, and had a few words with the fiery Yorkshireman. Jack used to give Bob a lift to Lord’s from Chiswick each day, where they both lived, and next morning in the car Bob was intrigued to know what words had passed between batsman and bowler. Jack replied that he had simply told Fred that he was much too good a bowler to resort to that sort of thing. There’s no answer to that. Fairly tall (5ft 11in), he was also always, whether playing or coaching, immaculately turned out, shirt sleeves neatly rolled up, cap set straight at the same angle and not a hair out of place. John Neal recalls that Jack told him that in case of emergency he always took two pairs of everything with him to a match. Not infrequently the emergency was that the absent- minded Denis Compton had forgotten something and had to borrow it from Jack. It was obvious from early days that Jack and Syd would flourish as a team. Writing in the Middlesex annual on the death of his old opening partner, Jack recalled: We always shared a room on away matches and spent most of our off-duty time together. He became a welcome and frequent visitor to my home, where he always did justice to my wife’s cooking. … An unselfish runner between wickets, we had excellent understanding and no problems. … A first-class team man, he was always ready to sacrifice his wicket in the search for quick runs on the orders of his captain. Former Middlesex colleague, England fast bowler Alan Moss, echoed these thoughts: ‘I can’t speak highly enough of him. Syd was a nice guy and a genuine character.’ He remembered him particularly as a gutsy batsman and a brilliant fielder. Micky Stewart was another contemporary, albeit just starting his career, who holds Syd in high regard. He recalls in particular a Middlesex v Surrey match towards the end of his career when Syd needed some decent scores to ensure his contract was renewed. He had got only a few when he feathered a ball down the leg side. Nobody appealed, not even wicketkeeper Arthur McIntyre, but Syd walked anyway. Speaking for the spectator W.J.O’Reilly wrote an appreciation of Syd in Preface