R. C. Robertson-Glasgow Explained

R. C. Robertson-Glasgow
Country:England
Fullname:Raymond Charles Robertson-Glasgow
Nickname:Crusoe
Birth Date:15 July 1901
Birth Place:Murrayfield, Edinburgh, Scotland
Death Place:Buckhold, Berkshire, England
Batting:Right-handed
Bowling:Right-arm fast-medium
Club1:Oxford University
Club2:Somerset
Club3:Marylebone Cricket Club
Columns:1
Column1:First-class
Matches1:144
Runs1:2,102
Bat Avg1:13.22
100S/50S1:0/4
Top Score1:80
Deliveries1:25,190
Wickets1:464
Bowl Avg1:25.77
Fivefor1:28
Tenfor1:6
Best Bowling1:9/38
Catches/Stumpings1:88/ -
Date:16 December
Year:2008
Source:https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/3/3786/3786.html CricketArchive

Raymond Charles "Crusoe" Robertson-Glasgow (15 July 1901 – 4 March 1965) was a Scottish cricketer and cricket writer.

Early life

Robertson-Glasgow was born in Edinburgh to a Scottish soldier and the daughter of an East Anglian clergyman.[1] Their marriage was an unhappy one, and Robertson-Glasgow's mother was inattentive to her two sons.[2] He won a scholarship to Charterhouse School and went on to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Although he enjoyed university life, it was while at Oxford that he began to experience the periodical depression that he was to struggle with for the rest of his life.[3]

Cricket

Robertson-Glasgow was a right-arm fast-medium bowler and useful tail-end batsman who played for Oxford University and Somerset in a first-class career that lasted from 1920 to 1937. In all he took 464 wickets at 25.77 in first-class cricket, with best innings figures of 9 for 38 when Somerset defeated Middlesex at Lord's in June 1924.[4]

Convivial, popular and humorous, Robertson-Glasgow subsequently won acclaim for his writing, in which his strong sense of humour shone through.[5] 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.[6]

His nickname of "Crusoe" came, according to Robertson-Glasgow himself, from the Essex batsman Charlie McGahey during a match in May 1920. 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."[7] [8]

Death

Robertson-Glasgow committed suicide during a snowstorm whilst in the grip of melancholic depression.[9] [10]

Books

Robertson-Glasgow's cricket books include:[11]

He also wrote the following non-cricket books:

External links

Notes and References

  1. [David Foot (journalist)|David Foot]
  2. Foot, Fragments of Idolatry, p. 25.
  3. Foot, Fragments of Idolatry, pp. 25–26.
  4. Web site: Middlesex v Somerset 1924 . Cricinfo . 10 October 2022.
  5. [Christopher Hollis (politician)|Christopher Hollis]
  6. http://www.cricketwriters.com/club-info.html Cricket Writers' Club Honours Board
  7. R. C. Robertson-Glasgow, 46 Not Out, Hollis & Carter, London, 1948, p. 108.
  8. Web site: Oxford University v Essex 1920 . Cricinfo . 23 December 2023.
  9. Web site: Foot. David. Cricket's Crusoe on this sporting life. The Guardian. 5 March 2017.
  10. Web site: Raymond Robertson-Glasgow . Cricinfo . 18 July 2021.
  11. http://www.isbn.pl/A-robertson-glasgow-r-c/t Robertson Glasgow R C – new and used books