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Robin Arnold SMITH

In 1980, with Barry Richards recently departed and Gordon Greenidge touring with the West Indies, Hampshire signed a young South African, Chris Smith, to open the batting. It was a tough year for Hampshire who finished bottom of the Championship for the only time in more than a hundred years but Smith enjoyed life sufficiently to qualify by residence and he went on to play a few Tests for his adopted country.

Chris was followed to England by his giant of a younger brother. Robin had been the schoolboy model for Barry Richards’ coaching book and he came with a reputation which he would more than fulfil over his two decades with Hampshire. He made his debut in 1982 but, like his brother, had to qualify by residence. In 1983, Greenidge was at the World Cup as Robin scored three centuries in seven matches and he soon became a regular in what was probably the strongest batting line-up in the county’s history.

In 1985, Mark Nicholas took over the captaincy and Robin passed 1,000 runs for the first time, repeating that feat in 1986. In 1987 he came in against Essex at 5-3 and scored 209* - his highest for Hampshire. By 1988 with England again suffering against the West Indies’ pace attack he was regularly talked about for selection. What, perhaps, clinched it was not a large first-class hundred but a brief, sparkling innings in Hampshire’s first limited-overs Lord’s Final – an innings that put Hampshire firmly on the path to victory, ended only by an amazing boundary catch.

From his first Test Match he showed his bravery and, in the second, passed fifty for the first time. In the following summer he made two centuries in the series against Australia and three limited-overs hundreds, as Hampshire became one of the strongest sides in the shorter form. In 1991 and 1992 they won consecutive Lord’s Finals and Robin was Man-of-the-Match both times. In 1993 he scored 167* for England against Australia setting the record for England in limited-overs cricket.

He played in all five Tests that Summer but scored just two fifties with an average under 30 as a young bowler called Shane Warne [pictured, left, together while at Hampshire with a young Giles White in the background at Northlands Road] tormented England and critics suggested Smith was fallible to spin. In truth, many Test batsmen were fallible to Warne and, elsewhere, Robin scored runs against slower bowlers but his international days were numbered and in his early 30s he was omitted, never to return. He left with a Test average just under 44 - higher than Gooch, Stewart, Atherton, Thorpe and all his contemporaries bar Gower. He was dropped too soon and he felt it keenly.

Over 15 seasons from 1983, only once (1992) did Robin Smith fail to average 40 for Hampshire and, in 1998 he passed 1,000 runs for the last time, again averaging over 40. The last few seasons were harder as he accepted the captaincy - a role for which he was not ideally suited but which, like everything in his career, he took on with typical willingness and commitment. In what was to be his last innings, at Taunton, he retired hurt, returned with a runner and limped to another fifty, remaining not out at the end. He was a delightful man and, on retirement, Hampshire named the Executive Club venue in his honour. A place in Hampshire’s ‘modern’ Legends XI is secure but he would be equally certain of a place as one of the greatest throughout Hampshire’s history.