Robin Hobbs died on May 8, 2024, aged 81. A rare England post-War leg-spinner, he played seven Test matches between 1967 and 1971. He was remembered in the 2025 edition of the Wisden Almanack.
HOBBS, ROBIN NICHOLAS STUART, who died on March 17, aged 81, flew the flag for English wrist-spin at a time when it was unfashionable: between Tommy Greenhough in 1960 and Ian Salisbury in 1992, Hobbs was the only specialist leg-spinner chosen by England, though he played just seven times. “He certainly deserved more caps,” said his long-time Essex team-mate Keith Fletcher. “He was easy to captain – there was no malice about him, and he wouldn’t sulk when not bowling. He was always accurate and never bowled filth, although he wasn’t the biggest spinner – more of a side-spinner than using his full wrist. And he was one of the best fielders in the country.”
Hobbs joined the Essex staff shortly before his 18th birthday in 1960, after Kent had shown interest. Perhaps mindful they had missed out on another Hobbs – Jack – around half a century before, Essex’s secretary/captain Trevor Bailey signed him up. “I think they thought we might as well pay him £5 a week, just in case,” Hobbs told Rob Kelly in 2018. “It was ridiculous really, because Essex were playing on green wickets and had plenty of spinners anyway.”
After Essex’s resident leggie Bill Greensmith retired, Hobbs came to the fore in 1964, starting with ten wickets at Lord’s for MCC against Surrey. “He tied the batsmen in all sorts of knots,” wrote Keith Miller in the Daily Express. “He sends down leg-breaks and top-spinners astonishingly accurately for a bowler of his type.” In August, Hobbs picked up 6-73 for Essex against Somerset, and ten wickets against Leicestershire. It helped win him selection for the tour of South Africa, which he called his “proudest moment ever in cricket”.
Like Mike Brearley, another newcomer on that trip, Hobbs did not crack the Test team. “They took me as a good fielder and for experience – whether it was the right experience I’m not sure.” It was back to county cricket for him and, helped by the fact that Essex’s captain Bailey and his successor Brian Taylor were admirers, he took 75 wickets in 1965, and 88 in 1966, including a career-best 8-63 (and 5-101) at Swansea. “It turned square,” recalled Hobbs. “I got three players out for nought in the middle order – genuine balls, leg-spinners that were caught at slip – then the last three all had a slog.”
Such consistency propelled him back into the selectors’ thoughts, and he made his Test debut in 1967 against India, under the sympathetic captaincy of Brian Close, who felt Hobbs was the find of the season “now he has discovered the googly, which was so obvious in his early days that any batsman could pick it”. He took four wickets on debut at Headingley, including the Nawab of Pataudi, India’s captain and top-scorer, and five more in the Third Test. But he had a frustrating time against Pakistan at Lord’s, where Hanif Mohammad made an undefeated 187. On the fourth morning, he had four chances missed: “Hobbs, operating round the wicket for much of the time, bowled the first 17 overs of the day from the Nursery End for 17 runs and a month’s share of frustration,” wrote John Woodcock in The Times.
He finished the season with 101 wickets, and toured the West Indies under Colin Cowdrey after Close was sacked – but played only in the first Test. Arguably he made more of a mark off the field, partying in Barbados with Princess Margaret (who blanked him two days later). He remained a consistent county wicket-taker, often obliged to play because Essex’s staff had been cut to the bone for financial reasons, and even scored a century during an eighth-wicket partnership of 192 with Stuart Turner against Glamorgan at Ilford in 1968, before taking seven wickets in an innings victory. His best season came in 1970 – when he picked up 102 wickets at 21 – but a fruitless outing against Pakistan at Headingley the following year convinced him he would not play for England again. “Ray Illingworth was a bloody good cricketer, but as a captain he was selfish – most top sportsmen are,” thought Hobbs. “I’ve got nothing against him. I just didn’t like him very much, and the feeling was mutual.”
In 1975, in what proved his last season with Essex, Hobbs achieved two significant landmarks. Against Worcestershire in May, he took his 1,000th first-class wicket: “It was a lot of hard grind. I’m proud of being the last leg-spinner to get to 1,000 in county cricket. It won’t happen again. Sad, isn’t it?” And there was a rare batting highlight – a 44-minute century against the Australians, from 45 balls with 12 fours and seven sixes, to win the Walter Lawrence Trophy for the season’s fastest hundred. Most of the runs came off spinners Jim Higgs and Ashley Mallett, and eventually the tourists’ captain Rod Marsh had enough: “OK mate, you’ve had your fun, now get out otherwise I’m going to bring Jeff Thomson on.” Hobbs had a reputation for not fancying the quicker bowlers: “I promptly got out next ball. I can say that I played against Australia when he was playing, but I wasn’t going to face Mr Thomson – sod that!”
That Chelmsford onslaught was almost Hobbs’s last act for Essex: only 33, he retired to take up a full-time job with Barclays Bank. But he played regular Minor Counties cricket for Suffolk, and made a surprise return to the first-class game in 1979, with a three-year deal to skipper Glamorgan. It proved a tough time, though he ended up with 45 wickets, despite missing most of the second season through injury. A new problem had arisen: “I’d always been a good fielder, but time catches up with you. I could remember the catches I’d dropped in first-class cricket on one hand, but I went through a period with Glamorgan where I dropped 12 on the trot. In a one-day game against Gloucestershire, I dropped Mike Procter four times – everywhere I went, Procter hit the ball. I kept dropping it, but we won the game. God knows how.”
Hobbs retired for good in 1981, finishing with 1,099 wickets at 27. He had been part of a feared slow-bowling triumvirate at Essex, with left-armer Ray East and off-spinner David Acfield: Graham Gooch put his ability against spin down to long battles with them in the nets. Hobbs had another season with Suffolk, turned out frequently for Old England sides in charity games, and played for Hutton in Essex alongside his son Nick. The Essex and Somerset wicketkeeper Neil Burns played in some of those later matches, and assessed the difference between Hobbs and other leg-spinners he encountered: “The pace at which he bowled, the variation of delivery and also his use of the crease. There was a lot of trickery to his bowling.”
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
