Lives in Cricket No 38 - Lionel Robinson

93 The death of Lionel Robinson and the fate of his cricket ground Beadsmoore (who took six for 40) ensured a heavy defeat for the home team. At the end of the season two brothers, Basil and Rodney Rought- Rought, made their first appearances for South Norfolk. Within a year both had been selected to play for Norfolk and, although both preferred to play for Brandon (their place of birth), they contributed significantly to the success of South Norfolk whenever they were available. The club also held social events off the field of play. Philip Yaxley reports that ‘grand dances and lavish dinners’ were held in Norwich and reports of golf tournaments also occur in the press. The uncertainty about the medium-term future of the club caused by Robinson’s death, was largely dispelled by the sale of the Old Buckenham Estate by Lionel’s widow to Ernest Gates, a successful industrialist from Bradford who continued to permit the club to use the facilities during his short period as lord of the manor. When he died in 1925, the situation improved still further for the South Norfolk as his bibulous son, Everard, was not just a willing host but also an enthusiastic cricketer in his own right who was more than keen to turn out for the Club. Everard Gates is first spotted in the Eastern Daily Press as a cricketer in June 1924, when he turned out for L.W.J.Hart’s XI but failed to trouble the scorers; however one of the first signs of his enthusiasm was his arrangement of a match between Old Buckenham Hall and Old Buckenham in June 1925. Hall won by 44 runs with Gates skippering and performing relatively well with both bat and ball, scoring 14 runs and taking three wickets. He then captained South Norfolk against the Gold Coast, a touring side, and managed to fit in a few more appearances during the 1925 season. A six-wicket haul against the Norwich General Post Office left him at the top of the bowling averages published in the Eastern Daily Press but his grand total of seven wickets at 8.00 contrasts starkly with the record of the second-placed Len Hart, who took no fewer than 95 wickets (at a cost of 10.39 apiece). Gates at the helm of cricket in Old Buckenham In 1926, and actively encouraged by Len Hart who put in the ‘hard yards’ as secretary behind the scenes, Gates began to emulate Lionel by bankrolling ‘his’ new club – with the notable difference that, whilst Robinson loved to play the bountiful host at Old Buckenham Hall, Gates was much more amenable to the concept of playing away from home, even participating in that year’s tour 64 which was organised by Hart. At the start of the cricket season the Eastern Daily Press reported that the South Norfolk Club had secured the services of Burnett Wedlake Bullock, who had been on the ground staff at Surrey ‘to assist in the cricket revival which Mr Everard Gates is organising amid the delightful surroundings familiar to many 64 Gates’ behaviour on the tour in 1926 provided the first solid evidence of what was soon to become all too obvious; that he had some serious issues with alcohol. As an example, South Norfolk’s heavy defeat by the Derbyshire club of Blackwell was been attributed to the fact that Gates kept the team up until early in the morning, quaffing huge amounts of champagne in celebration of his birthday. To be fair to Gates, Philip Yaxley has pointed out that the other players of the South Norfolk Club, having been led to water, had a record of not refusing to drink. He states of the club’s tours that ‘the social side seemed as important as the cricket’ and that the squad travelled in a vehicle known as the ‘Beer Bus’.