Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

49 Putting Old Buckenham on the cricketing map 11 for 120. The South Africans thus had virtually a whole day in which to score 258 for victory. Unfortunately for them, the rain that had curtailed the second day’s play was followed by bright sunshine and the result was that the wicket turned into an old-fashioned ‘sticky dog’ on which they had no chance against the slowish left arm spin of Tarrant and the pacier Harry Simms. Each took five wickets, with Tarrant’s figures of 14-10-8-5 being particularly impressive. The tourists could only manage 66, with only Herbie Taylor and Gordon White making double figures. The tourists were not rated a particularly strong team but the margin of defeat, a crushing 191 runs, gave an unfairly poor impression of their calibre to the crowd of ‘several hundred’ who turned up to watch play on the third day. 38 It has been suggested that the tourists did not take this match entirely seriously but their misfortune would not have troubled Lionel Robinson one bit; he would have been extremely happy with a massive win over tourists who had Test status. Intriguingly, a note appeared in the Eastern Daily Press in September 1912: ‘We are informed by Mr Lionel Robinson that there is no truth in the report published in Melbourne that he is taking out an English cricket team to Australia.’ This sentence is something of a puzzle; Robinson was reluctant for his teams to play even a few miles from Old Buckenham and they never ventured beyond the county boundaries of Norfolk. There is no hint anywhere else that the one-time globetrotter, having settled down, showed any desire whatsoever to export ‘his’ cricket. The existence of a possible unofficial tour was also reported in the Australian press, which suggested that either Robinson or Sir Abe Bailey, a keen financier of cricket from South Africa, was behind the proposed venture but no more was heard of this shadowy proposition. Racing Success and the Stud Farm Lionel started investing in horse-racing in England in 1898 and he and Bill Clark were among the first owners to transport high-quality horses from England to Australia. They enjoyed many victories in important races, including one of the world’s most prestigious events, the Melbourne Cup, which they took with the aptly named four-year-old, The Victory, in 1902. 39 More big wins in Australia came courtesy of Rienzi (South Australian Derby, 1902), King Offa (Caulfield Cup), St Spasa (the Metropolitan Stakes), Eudoros and Flash of Steel (both winners of the Caulfield Futurity Stakes) and Lucknow (winner of both the Caulfield Cup and the Caulfield Futurity Stakes). An article in The Australian lauded the ability of Bill Clark, both as a tipster worth following and as the owner of a profitable string of horses. 40 38 Admission to Robinson’s ground was, as usual, free, even though the match had been granted first-class status. 39 The Melbourne Cup was the richest of all the Australian races and winning it was a boyhood ambition for Lionel but neither he nor Clark travelled from England to be present at the triumph of The Victory; they did, however, make themselves popular by organising for £200 of their winnings to be donated to various Australian charities. 40 Their racing colours were dark blue, rose and lavender.