Robert Colchin (1713 – 1750) was an English

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 match organiser of the mid-Georgian period at a time when the

single wicket Single wicket cricket is a form of cricket played between two individuals, who take turns to bat and bowl against each other. The one bowling is assisted by a team of fielders, who remain as fielders at the change of innings. The winner is the one w ...

version of the game was popular. He was christened at

Chailey Chailey is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located 7 miles north of Lewes, on the A272 road from Winchester to Canterbury. The Prime Meridian passes just to the east of Chailey. The parish consist ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in 1713 and buried at

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in 1750.Long Robin
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2022-04-05.

Life

Colchin lived in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

for several years and was associated with the local

Bromley Cricket Club Bromley Cricket Club was one of the strongest English cricket clubs in the mid-18th century when its team was led by Robert Colchin a.k.a. "Long Robin". Earliest mentions Cricket almost certainly originated in Kent and Sussex so it must have bee ...

, which was prominent through the 1740s and declined after his death. In addition to his prowess as a single wicket player, Colchin played for

in top-class eleven-a-side matches including the famous match against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at the

Artillery Ground The Artillery Ground in Finsbury is an open space originally set aside for archery and later known also as a cricket venue. Today it is used for military exercises, cricket, rugby and football matches. It belongs to the Honourable Artillery Co ...

in 1744.Haygarth, pp. 1–2. Colchin had strong associations with the Artillery Ground and is known to have promoted many matches there, often fielding his own team. Colchin was an accomplished single wicket performer and was considered to have been one of the best batsmen of his day; he was called "Long Robin" because he was so tall.. F. S. Ashley-Cooper (1900) At the Sign of the Wicket: Cricket 1742–1751, ''Cricket: A weekly record of the game'', 26 April 1900, p. 84.
Available online
at

The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

. Retrieved 2022-04-05.) According to a contemporary article about Colchin in ''The Connoisseur'' (no. 132, dated 1746): "his greatest excellence is cricket-playing, in which he is reckoned as good a bat as either of the Bennetts; and is at length arrived at the supreme dignity of being distinguished among his breathren of the wicket by the title of Long Robin". According to ''The Connoisseur'', Colchin's favourite amusement was attending the executions at

Tyburn Tyburn was a manor (estate) in the county of Middlesex, one of two which were served by the parish of Marylebone. The parish, probably therefore also the manor, was bounded by Roman roads to the west (modern Edgware Road) and south (modern Ox ...

. He had been "born and bred a gentleman, but has taken great pains to degrade himself, and is now as complete a blackguard as those whom he has chosen for his companions". Colchin died in the last few days of April 1750, aged 36 or 37. He had taken part in an athletics race on 9 April and a contemporary report said he developed a "surfeit" doing that "which threw him into the Small-Pox".Maun, p. 203.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colchin, Robert English cricketers English cricketers of 1701 to 1786 Kent cricketers 1713 births 1750 deaths Single wicket cricketers Non-international England cricketers