Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

55 of Douglas who took six wickets to bring his match haul to ten, but who conceded no fewer than 125 runs in just 23 overs. Bosanquet fought alone, however, and skipper Robinson had a comfortable victory to hang on his belt in what would appear to have been his last appearance as an active cricketer. His final record in those matches whose details have survived is a total of 143 runs in 29 innings, 20 of which were completed, for a batting average of 7.15. CricketArchive propose that a player named “LG Robinson” who turned out for W.G.Grace’s XI against W.G.L.F.Lowndes’ XI in a one-day fixture at Chesham in 1907 was the subject of this biography. This match would be of interest for it would be the earliest sighting of Lionel as a player. However, the player in question scored a sizeable 163 against an attack that included the Test star ‘Old Jack’ Hearne. It is inconceivable that this could have been the habitual duffer Lionel, but, just to make sure, Tom Walshe has been kind enough to obtain a picture of all the players involved and he assures me that none bears the remotest resemblance to Lionel. The final match of the season, which was awarded first-class status, was between L Robinson’s XI and J.R.Mason’s XI, all eleven members of which represented Kent at some stage. Archie selected an extremely strong side to oppose them; eight had played, or would play, Test cricket (Bosanquet, Hendren, Moon, Pegler, Schwarz, George Gunn, Sydney Barnes and Claude Buckenham) and another, Frank Tarrant, who would certainly have done so if the regulations had been a little less strict than they were at the time. Not only was this eleven unusual in its strength, it was unusual in its social make-up – no fewer than five were extremely talented professional cricketers. This was not country house cricket in its strictest sense, where the result was of little importance, but a match in which the home side, at least, were determined to be victorious. 46 Having put a very strong side into the field, Robinson’s eternal enemy, the weather, continued to frown upon Old Buckenham. A combination of heavy rain overnight and then drizzle on the day meant that the first day was completely washed out and play did not start on the second day until 2pm; even then a fresh pitch had to be cut. On the second afternoon Bosanquet’s 74 helped Robinson’s team to reach 236 for seven (five of the wickets falling to ‘Daddy’ Carr) at which point the innings was declared closed, a quixotic gesture as the match was already so far behind schedule for a result to be possible. At first, Mason’s XI looked in little trouble and, largely due to the batting of Edward Humphreys and James Seymour, reached safety at 128 for two. However, the wicket was now beginning to offer something to the bowlers and, in Sydney Barnes, the home team had just the man to take advantage. He ran through the rest of Mason’s batting, taking seven for 88 as the innings closed for 216. Robinson could thus claim first-innings honours. That was the end of the meaningful cricket; as many of the players needed to catch a train to attend the Scarborough Festival it was arranged to draw stumps as early as 4pm. After a desultory passage of play, in which 46 It was matches such as this that led Evelyn Metcalfe, whilst reminiscing on country-house cricket in The Cricketer in 1942, to suggest that Lionel had got rather carried away with the determination to win and had forsaken the true spirit of the country-house game. Further Successes At Old Buckenham