Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

103 Robinson – ‘new money’ and cricket organised six overseas tours. It is often thought that both Lionel and Cahn remained outsiders, prevented from being welcomed into the English cricketing establishment by being ‘new money’ and by being, either an irascible Australian (Lionel), or Jewish (Cahn). Certainly neither was invited to become a member of the MCC and it is clear that prejudice did a thorough job in curtailing Cahn’s ambitions over the decade and a half in which he was active in the cricket world. That Lionel was also ‘blackballed’ by the establishment is a little harder to prove. He was bankrolling the 1912 Triangular Tournament within two years of making his first significant investment in cricket (the construction of his first ground) but subsequent events meant that any ambitions that he may have had to join the establishment were thwarted. The outbreak of the Great War ended any major tours after 1912; 72 it is just conceivable that, if war had been avoided, the MCC might have been seduced by Lionel’s money every bit as much as the EWCB were by the apparent fortune of Stanford – on the other hand they might have pocketed his money and still withheld membership of their club. From what is known of Lionel, a thick-skinned colonial, it seems that he might not have been that bothered. However, there remains the matter of the visit to Old Buckenham of the Australians in 1921, the like of which has never been repeated. In moments of doubt, the author had begun to wonder whether the existence of this fixture, so fantastic and prestigious a beast, can only be explained in terms of Lionel being at least partway ‘accepted’ by the establishment and permitted the match. But much more likely is the hypothesis, advanced in chapter six, that Lionel bypassed the MCC and the ABC altogether and used all his influence and money to insert his match into the tourists’ schedule. 72 The Australians were not scheduled to make their next tour until 1916 with the South Africans visiting in the following year. West entrance gates, Old Buckenham Hall, leading towards the cricket ground... dilapidated but still standing despite Lionel’s motor car incident. Note also the innovative electric light portholes. (Tom Walshe)