Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

45 and tried to bowl out the MCC but that Robinson was content that he had given the visitors ‘a real good leather hunting’. Unfortunately this tale appears to have had almost no basis in truth; even Sir Neville Cardus at his most inventive would have blanched at such an outrageous tissue of falsehoods. The match, which took place on 1 and 2 July, was a standard eleven-a-side affair and, although it did indeed finish with the strange- looking score, Robinson’s XI only managed to accumulate 262 before the game terminated. 35 Furthermore, the two Australian openers, W.L. Jack (who scored 93) and Rupert Minnett (who reached 156), were relatively obscure and not members of the touring side at all. More importantly, it was the second day that was rained off rather than the first; Robinson’s teamwere thus guilty of nothing more than building a sizeable first-innings score whilst conditions were favourable. No-one could have known that the lack of further play would render the whole innings futile. Metcalfe stands exposed as a fraud – but the very fact that he could even consider telling such an outrageous story against Lionel Robinson suggests that there was ‘no smoke without fire’ and that his readers would be expecting tales of his host to feature some eccentric ‘colonial’ behaviour 36 Prolonged rain delayed the start of the third and final match of the Old Buckenham Hall Week until 2pm on the first day, and the wicket played as badly as might have been expected until the close of play. The Incogniti were tumbled out for 88, largely due to Schwarz who took six for 16 off 15.1 overs with his googlies but Hall could do little better, losing nine wickets for 96 when the absence of the mysterious ‘H.A.Barmey’ caused the innings to be closed. Conran made his mark by taking three for seven against rather than for Lionel’s eleven. Use of the roller meant that the 35 It would be of interest to know if there has ever been a match, at any level, in which no wicket fell and more than 262 runs were scored. 36 Not for the only time, Metcalfe enjoyed telling a tale so much that this appeared twice in The Cricketer . Putting Old Buckenham on the cricketing map Archie MacLaren with son Ian wildfowling on The Warren, Old Buckenham. (Ian MacLaren album, courtesy of Michael Down)