Raymond Charles "Crusoe" Robertson-Glasgow (15 July 1901 – 4 March 1965) was a Scottish

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 and cricket writer.

Life and career

Robertson-Glasgow was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and educated at

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

and

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

. He was a right-arm fast-medium bowler who played for

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. During his career, which lasted from 1920 to 1937, he took 464 wickets at 25.77 in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

, with best innings figures of 9 for 38 when Somerset defeated

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

in June 1924. Convivial, popular and humorous, he subsequently won acclaim for his writing, in which his strong sense of humour shone through. In 1933 he became cricket correspondent for the ''

Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...

''. He later wrote for the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'', ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' and the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

''. Robertson-Glasgow retired from regular cricket writing in 1953. He was Chairman of the

Cricket Writers' Club The Cricket Writers' Club is an association for cricket journalists working in print, television or radio. It was established in 1947, and contains around 90% of those eligible for membership. During the 1946–47 Ashes series, the Australian and Br ...

in 1959. His nickname of "Crusoe" came, according to Robertson-Glasgow himself, from the Essex batsman

Charlie McGahey Charles Percy McGahey (12 February 1871 – 10 January 1935) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Essex between 1894 and 1921. McGahey also played for London County between 1901 and 1904 and was named as one of the Wisd ...

. 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 ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...

." Robertson-Glasgow committed suicide during a snowstorm whilst in the grip of melancholic depression.

Books

Robertson-Glasgow's cricket books include:Robertson Glasgow R C – new and used books
/ref> *''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) *''No Other Land'' (1942) *''Country Talk: A Miscellany'' (1964)

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson-Glasgow, Raymond 1901 births 1965 deaths 1965 suicides Cricketers from Edinburgh People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford English cricketers Oxford University cricketers Somerset cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Cricket historians and writers Suicides in England Free Foresters cricketers Harlequins cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers Oxford and Cambridge Universities cricketers H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI cricketers