Jack Robertson

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = English
country = England
country abbrev = ENG
name = Jack Robertson
picture = Cricket_no_pic.pngbatting style = Right-hand bat
bowling style = Right-arm offbreak
tests = 11
test runs = 881
test bat avg = 46.36
test 100s/50s = 2/6
test top score = 133
test balls = 138
test wickets = 2
test bowl avg = 29.00
test 5s = -
test 10s = -
test best bowling = 2/17
test catches/stumpings = 6/-
FCs = 509
FC runs = 31914
FC bat avg = 37.50
FC 100s/50s = 67/161
FC top score = 331*
FC balls = 5685
FC wickets = 73
FC bowl avg = 34.73
FC 5s = -
FC 10s = -
FC best bowling = 4/37
FC catches/stumpings = 352/-
debut date = 16 August
debut year = 1947
last date = 6 February
last year = 1952
source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/19423.html

John David Benbow Robertson, born February 22, 1917 and died October 12, 1996, was a cricketer who played for Middlesex and England.

A right-handed opening batsman of consistency and class, Jack Robertson was a heavy scorer in county cricket who averaged 46 runs per innings in Tests. Yet he played only 11 times for England, was dropped after making a century in 1949, and was never selected to face Australia.

It was Robertson's misfortune to be overshadowed by others both in his international and in his county cricket career. For the first half dozen years of cricket after the Second World War, England's preferred opening partnership was the trans-Pennine combination of Leonard Hutton and Cyril Washbrook; Robertson's selection for the first Test of 1949 against New Zealand was the result of injury to Washbrook and despite scoring 121 and sharing a partnership of 143 with Hutton, he lost his place.

For Middlesex, Robertson often seemed similarly overshadowed by the dynamic batting of Denis Compton and Bill Edrich. Yet in the summer of 1947, when Compton's 3,816 runs and Edrich's 3,539 set new records for run-getting, Robertson was not far behind, making 2,760 runs with 12 centuries. He surpassed that in 1951 with 2,917 runs, the highest aggregate of any batsman that season. He could also bat as entertainingly as his better-known county colleagues: in 1949, he made an undefeated 331 in a day against Worcestershire at Worcester, an innings that remains the highest scored in first-class cricket by a Middlesex batsman and the highest first-class innings by any batsman at New Road.

Robertson passed 1,000 runs in a season every year from 1946 until 1958 but, failing to find any form in 1959, he retired and became county coach.

He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1948.

References

Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, passim