Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

79 the former marked the occasion by presenting each player with a tie in his racing colours, described by Herbie Collins as ‘my ideal tie’. The prophet crying in the wilderness Having got very much the better of the Australian tourists, and fielding a strong side, Archie felt entitled to blow his own trumpet at every opportunity. During the summer that followed the Australians’ visit to Old Buckenham, English cricket suffered from a widespread defeatism that had been born in the whitewash that they had suffered the previous winter. Most people forgot the events at Old Buckenham, but not the ex- England skipper. Mason, describing the match as ‘a curious and interesting portent’, states that Archie ‘maintained stoutly through the hell and high water that engulfed England during the next few months that this, and not the succeeding matches, represented Australia’s true quality, and nothing of the horrors to come could persuade him that they were not vulnerable if the proper team to beat them could be assembled’. He began his verbal campaign as early as the aftermath of the first Test, admittedly an utter shambles for the home side, giving ‘all the English team a considerable roughing-up in an article published just before the second Test ... whereas most critics found the displays of Knight and Holmes a twin consolation ... [he] found a whole string of faults in each of them and criticised their footwork and technique without mercy. There seems ... much sound sense in what [he] said; though there is a hint or two that there were those who were disposed to convict him of rocking the boat.’ Michael Down reports: ‘Throughout the season the man who was so often branded a pessimist took every opportunity to speak up for English prospects, as long as the correct players were chosen. He pressed the claims of the younger generation but such calls were ignored by the selectors.’ The visit of the Australians In 1921 Jack White bowled by Jack Gregory.