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GOLCAR
CRICKET & ATHLETIC CLUB |
Dave Robinson ..... (Robbo)
Profiled
by: Peter Redding (Huddersfield University - 2006) “Thoughtful, intense and single minded”
is how Dave Robinson's on-field persona was described, and it was
these character traits that have helped him to captain Golcar successfully
for three seasons from '04 to '06, very much focused on victory, finding
it hard to look underachievement in the face, demanding total effort
and commitment, with the belief that you should socialise hard after
games only if you have played hard in them. “Robbo” also places great emphasis on training:
nothing should be done half-heartedly whether it be in practice or in a match. Dave
Robinson signed up for Golcar at the start of the 2004 summer having had spells
at various other clubs (10 to be exact) in West Yorkshire, in a career spanning
over 5 decades, joining the club to take on the dual roles of captaincy and wicketkeeping,
but the burden of these jobs certainly didn’t affect his performance, or that
of the team, guiding Golcar to promotion into the Drakes Premiership in his first
season at the club, and in the next two years they were able to consolidate their
position in the top division finishing 4th in 2005, and 6th
in 2006. He
was known for his agility behind the stumps and his astute captaincy,
but it should also be noted that Robinson had five career centuries
to his credit before he played for Golcar, the highest being 143,
having been a top order batter for most of his career, with his batting
being described as uncomplicated, working on a simple philosophy of
hitting anything in his 'half', but batted at number 11 in his time
at Golcar, where the opportunities to score are limited. Dave says:
“I had a good eye and was able to hit the ball hard, with a no-nonsense
approach”. “Robbo”
considers Ian Botham to be one of his hero’s, with the ex-England man’s “will to win and never-say-die attitude”
being most admired, with his other cricketing hero being Geoffrey Boycott, with
his own determined character somewhat mirroring that of the Yorkshire and Test
batsman also.
Robinson
began keeping wicket in his late teens, and had previously fielded mostly at square
leg and cover, but had quickly realised the benefits of being a stumper. He
says: “To me wicketkeeping is miles better
than chasing leather to the boundary”. Prior
to stumping Dave even used to turn his arm over on the odd occasion, and was an
occasional slow bowler who tried to strangle the run rate by bowling accurate
line and length, with his best bowling figures of 4 for 42 also proving that he
was capable of making important breakthroughs. Dave’s
is also enthusiastic about the game of cricket in general and he is
quick to recognise the contribution of those behind the scenes. He
says: “There are many volunteer
workers at every club whose time and effort is spent trying to improve
their facilities and standards of cricket. These people sometimes
tend to be forgotten, but without these people cricket could not be
played”. Helping
the club off the field is very important to Dave, and was been keen
to help out with fundraising and ground maintenance. “Robbo” is also keen to see cricket continue
to progress and is an advocate of change to make league cricket more exciting
and move with the times: “I would like
to see some sort of end-of-season play-off format for the top eight teams and
a grand final - this would give the last few league games a bit more meaning for
many more clubs, and that way every team would have something to play for right
until the end of the season”. Robinson’s
final aim before retirement was to ensure that the club was in better
shape than when he took over the captaincy, wanting to see “both senior teams established in the Premiership”. The
presence of under-9, 11, 13, 15 and 17 teams at Golcar also shows
that the infrastructure is in place for Golcar to have a bright long-term
future, something that Robinson feels is essential. Dave
is a visionary and is never one to rest on his laurels, never leaving
anything to chance, and is very thorough and strategic in his planning,
and it was these qualities that allowed him to successfully skipper
Golcar for three seasons, and it will be interesting to see how the
club makes further progress in the coming years ? |
