Derrick Harold Robins (27 June 1914 – 3 May 2004) was an English

cricketer Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and sports promoter, at one time chairman of

Coventry City Football Club Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed ...

. He was born in

Bexleyheath Bexleyheath is a town in south-east London, England. It had a population of 31,929 as at 2011. Bexleyheath is located south-east of Charing Cross, and forms part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

, Kent. Robins played two matches for Warwickshire in 1947, but did little and never played

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

again. Extraordinarily, his third first-class appearance would come 22 years later, when he appeared for his own "D. H. Robins's XI" against the touring West Indians at The Saffrons, Eastbourne. Robins made two further appearances for his own XI, against Oxford University in 1969 and against the

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

in 1971, the latter game coming a few days after his 57th birthday. However, he was better known as the promoter who took several strong sides to apartheid South Africa in the 1970s. Between 1972/73 and 1975/76 a D. H. Robins's XI played in the country each winter. In those days there were no sanctions against cricketers who visited South Africa, and Robins's teams included players of high quality, including such names as Bob Willis,

Brian Close Dennis Brian Close, (24 February 1931 – 13 September 2015) was an English first-class cricketer. He was picked to play against New Zealand in July 1949, when he was 18 years old. Close went on to play 22 Test matches for England, ...

, Tony Greig and Trevor Chappell. Detailed accounts of these matches can be found in the International cricket in South Africa from 1971 to 1981 article. He also took first-class teams to Sri Lanka in 1977–78 and New Zealand in 1979–80. He died in South Africa at the age of 89.

References

Cricinfo profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robins, Derrick 1914 births English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers English football chairmen and investors Coventry City F.C. directors and chairmen 2004 deaths D. H. Robins' XI cricketers 20th-century English businesspeople