John Benjamin Robertson (5 June 1906 – 5 July 1985) was a South African
cricket
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 ...
er who played in three
Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
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...
in 1935–36.
Early cricket
Robertson was a lower-order right-handed batsman and a right-arm bowler who could bowl either medium-pace or off-breaks. He played
first-class cricket for
Western Province from 1931 to 1932 to 1936–37 and had occasional bowling success, including taking six
Griqualand West first-innings wickets for 22 runs in 1933–34. He was not, however, picked for the
1935 South African tour to England. The following winter, however, the
Australians toured South Africa and, playing for Western Province in one of the warm-up matches before the Test series, Robertson took eight Australian wickets for 96 runs in the touring team's only innings of the game. They were the best bowling figures of his career and they propelled him into the
South African __NOTOC__
South African may relate to:
* The nation of South Africa
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Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...
team for the first Test.
Test cricket
Robertson played in the first three Tests of a five-match series that showed the limitations of the South African side against the great spin bowling combination of
Clarrie Grimmett and
Bill O'Reilly. In his first match, Robertson bowled 55 overs in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
's first innings, and took three wickets for 143 runs, which would prove to be his best Test figures. In the second match, there was only a single wicket, but he made his highest Test score of 17. The third match yielded two further wickets, but with that, his Test career was over, as an innings defeat left South Africa two down with two to play.
Robertson appeared in only two further matches for Western Province in the 1936–37 season before leaving first-class cricket for good. He reappeared in a non-first-class game in wartime, playing for the South African Combined Services side against Western Province and taking seven wickets in the match.
References
1906 births
1985 deaths
South Africa Test cricketers
South African cricketers
Western Province cricketers
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