Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

104 Acknowledgements Thanks for the original encouragement to write this book are due to David Jeater, who assured me that, in the light of his role of a financier of country house cricket to the highest level, Robinson’s own utterly inept performances on the field of play did not disqualify him from being a suitable subject for the Lives in Cricket series. Equally profuse thanks are due to Tom Walshe, a member of the Old Buckenham Cricket Club, who published an excellent article on Lionel in the Eastern Daily Press as far back as 2006, and who has contributed to the production of this volume in three ways. He has been kind enough to provide a highly thought-provoking Foreword and to offer his erudite comments on the manuscript, which were as helpful as one would expect from someone who is exceedingly well-informed about Lionel’s personal life. He has also used his local knowledge to provide me with a huge variety of photographs and documents of great interest to a would-be biographer of Lionel and introduced me to Roger Wilson, the leading expert on the history of Old Buckenham who also leant me some valuable photographs. I have greatly enjoyed swapping ideas and developing theories with Tom. When Tom and I first met he was already in contact with various interested parties in Australia and he provided me with the email addresses of Colin Riley, who has written a splendid article on Lionel Robinson in The Yorker magazine (the journal of the Melbourne Cricket Club Library); Bruce Brown and, most significantly, of Michael Robinson, the grandson of Lionel’s brother Sir Arthur Robinson, allowing me the privilege of making contact with the last myself. Michael turned out to be the ‘holy grail’ of the whole affair, taking the trouble to fill in a number of troublesome gaps in our knowledge in a lengthy email and dealing frankly and knowledgeably with the matter of Lionel’s parents and the timing of their marriage. I can pay Michael no higher compliment than to quote David Jeater’s comment on seeing his email: ‘In my experience it is very rare to contribute on that scale to an inquiry. Especially when he’s not even a direct descendant.’ Subsequently Michael provided copies of several documents which were of great value. Finally, during a visit to Britain, he was also generous enough to entertain Tom and myself to a splendid lunch in London, during which we had many profitable and interesting discussions in Lionel’s character and motivation Colin Riley, who used to live in Old Buckenham and now resides in Melbourne, and who retains an active interest in Lionel, and Bruce Brown, a former master at Scotch College, Melbourne, currently engaged in writing the Centenary History of the Scotch Old Boys (‘With a keen but loving eye’) that includes a chapter on ‘The Remarkable Robinsons’, have both provided valuable information on Lionel from their viewpoint ‘down-