R. C. Robertson-Glasgow

Raymond Charles 'Crusoe' Robertson-Glasgow (born 15 July 1901 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, Scotland; died 4 March 1965 at Buckhold, Berkshire, England) was a Scottish cricketer and cricket writer.

R. C. Robertson-Glasgow
Personal information
Full nameRaymond Charles Robertson-Glasgow
Born(1901-07-15)15 July 1901
Murrayfield, Edinburgh, Scotland
Died4 March 1965(1965-03-04) (aged 63)
Buckhold, Berkshire, England
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight arm fast-medium
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1920–1935Somerset
1927–1933Marylebone Cricket Club
1920–1923Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 144
Runs scored 2,102
Batting average 13.22
100s/50s 0/4
Top score 80
Balls bowled 25,190
Wickets 464
Bowling average 25.77
5 wickets in innings 28
10 wickets in match 6
Best bowling 9/38
Catches/stumpings 88/–
Source: CricketArchive, 16 December 2008

Life and career

Robertson-Glasgow was born in Edinburgh and educated at Charterhouse School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.[1] He was a right-arm fast-medium bowler who played for Oxford University and Somerset. During his career, which lasted from 1920 to 1937, he took 464 wickets at 25.77 in first-class cricket, with best innings figures of 9-38.

Convivial, popular and humorous, he subsequently won acclaim for his writing, in which his strong sense of humour shone through.[2] In 1933 he became cricket correspondent for the Morning Post. He later wrote for the Daily Telegraph, The Observer and the Sunday Times.

He retired from regular cricket writing in 1953. He was Chairman of the Cricket Writers' Club in 1959.[3]

His nickname of "Crusoe" came, according to Robertson-Glasgow himself, from the Essex batsman Charlie McGahey. When his captain asked McGahey how he had been dismissed, he replied: "I was bowled by an old ----- I thought was dead two thousand years ago, called Robinson Crusoe."[4]

He committed suicide during a snowstorm whilst in the grip of melancholic depression.

Books

His cricket books include:[5]

  • Cricket Prints: Some Batsmen and Bowlers (1920-1940) (Werner Laurie, 1948)
  • More Cricket Prints: Some Batsmen and Bowlers (1920-1945) (1948)
  • 46 Not Out - an autobiography (1948)
  • Rain Stopped Play (1948)
  • The Brighter Side of Cricket (Arthur Barker, 1950)
  • All in the Game (1952)
  • How to Become a Test Cricketer (1962)
  • Crusoe on Cricket: The Cricket Writings of R. C. Robertson-Glasgow (1966)

He also wrote the following non-cricket books:

  • I was Himmler's Aunt (1940)
  • Country Talk: A Miscellany (1964)

References
  1. Foot, David. "Cricket's Crusoe on this sporting life". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  2. Christopher Hollis, Oxford in the Twenties (1976)
  3. Cricket Writers' Club Honours Board. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  4. RC Robertson-Glasgow, 46 Not Out, Hollis & Carter (1948), p.108.
  5. Robertson Glasgow R C - new and used books


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.