Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

86 The visit of the Australians In 1921 trapped him leg before wicket. Despite the intensity of play on the final day, hard-nosed cynics might still state that this was a meaningless victory over a side who were, to quote Ronald Mason ‘dog-tired ... by the ... grinding routine [of touring]’ and who might not have been that interested in the result. He further describes that the normally truculent Armstrong made a most magnanimous speech to the Eastbourne crowd after the match, which could be taken as evidence that the Australian skipper was not unduly concerned. E.H.D.Sewell wrote otherwise, stating that: ‘Armstrong was simply livid at the result. He galumphed down to the station alone like a wounded bear with a very sore head, extremely tired of life, and scarcely on speaking terms with the rest of his team!’ 61 After the two disastrous Ashes series, the result at Eastbourne was seized upon by English cricket-lovers desperate for any sort of success. It was acclaimed as a great victory and meant that Armstrong’s team was unable to describe itself as ‘invincible’, unlike Bradman’s tourists of 1948. 62 It was an outstanding day for Archie and his team, particularly Faulkner, Falcon, Gibson and Hubert Ashton. In the heat of the moment the plaudits were for Archie, described as ‘calm and dignified’ by Gilbert Ashton, and no-one remembered that a major causal factor in the nemesis of the tourists was Robinson’s pound. 61 The literally sore heads were found the next morning and belonged to Archie, Faulkner and Brearley, who celebrated their victory by drinking themselves under the table. 62 It is amusing that Bradman was only too aware of the dangers of his team losing the unbeaten record that he so coveted at the hands of a very strong side masquerading as a ‘festival’ eleven that he stipulated that only a limited number of Test-class players should oppose his team in such fixtures. This approach would have been useless against Archie’s team with its total of no current Test players. Warwick Armstrong cover drives a boundary at Old Buckenham, watched by (left to right) Percy Fender, Percy Chapman, Archie MacLaren and George Wood.