The Twelfth Man 2019

BETWEEN TWELFTH MEN A round-up of events in the cricket world since the 2018 Magazine Ruth Strauss, wife of An- drew who had stepped down from the role of Director of English Cricket to care for her, sadly succumbed to her cancer just after Christ- mas. At the start of an Ashes year India beat Aus- tralia - the first time in Australia - 2-1 in the Test series. They were well on the way to winning a third until rain washed out the final day in Sydney. After mounting specula- tion at the delay, Jonny Bairstow finally commit- ted to a new three year contract with Yorkshire on 9 January. 47-year old Paul Grayson, formerly of Yorkshire and Essex, has taken on the role of batting coach at YCCC, leaving his post of coach to the Yorkshire Diamonds. Steve Patterson, who stepped into the breach when Gary Ballance stepped down as captain early in the 2018 season, has been appointed cap- tain across all three for- mats by Yorkshire. Former Yorkshire and England fast bowler Aj- mal Shahzad has been appointed as head coach at MCC where he will have responsibility for the MCC Young Player Programme. Paul Farbrace, assistant coach with England un- der Trevor Bayliss has been appointed as direc- tor of sport at Warwick- shire CCC, the post va- cated by Ashley Giles. On 26 February York- shire revealed that they will go down the Kolpak route with the signing of fast bowler Duanne Olivier who has turned his back on playing for South Africa in order to take up his posting. Review Robin Hobbs (L) with Margaret Brayshaw Robin Nicholas Stuart Hobbs (born 8 May 1942) of Essex and Glamor- gan played seven Tests for England from 1967 to 1971; he was the last specialist leg-spinner until Ian Salis- bury revived the art in 1992 and later, of course, came Adil Rashid of Yorkshire. Robin began his talk by recalling a visit to the Wombwell in 2001, pro- ducing a letter from the then Chair- man, Frank Taylor and saying how touched he had been to receive it days after the visit. It clearly meant a lot to him. Describing how be came ‘besotted’ with cricket at an early age, he described listening to a crystal-set radio under the bed covers for the overseas coverage and going out to buy the 1952 edi- tion of Wisden. Robin played junior cricket at Chingford CC and man- aged to get on to Essex’s radar, but finding there were already eleven spinners on the county’s books, he began attending nets at Kent, hav- ing been chosen by Les Ames. At this point, Essex stepped in and brought him back to his home county and he started in the sec- ond XI in 1960. First-team cricket followed in 1961 and in his second match it was a matter of high es- teem that he was chosen to face Yorkshire at Harrogate. Playing un- der Trevor Bailey, it was a question of being bowled at the right time. As captain in 1972 he put him- self on to bowl at Viv Richards. In his first over four balls were des- patched through the covers but the next one cut onto his stumps and the great man departed somewhat incredulously. The pair faced each other again in 1979, when Robin had moved to Glamorgan and, as he came in, Richards turned to him and said ‘ready for the re-match?’ - so had clearly not forgotten the earlier encounter seven years be- fore. Robin also recalled playing in the Scarborough Festival in T N Pearce’s XI and in numerous amusing anec- dotes he spoke of a match at Ley- ton where a portable toilet had been provided. During the play, a lady had been seen going into one, just as a lorry pulled alongside and began hoisting the occupied toilet onto the back of the trailer. Play was held up briefly as they ran af- ter the lorry trying to get the atten- tion of the driver, just as the lady emerged onto the back platform. Fortunately no harm was done. ROBINHOBBS 11 February 2019