RIP ‘The Judge’ Robin Smith.

[revo333]

GWS - the fella seemed so quiet and unassuming....till he had bat in his hand.....like Gordon Greenidge, Smith had a cracking cut shot.....why was he called Judge mate?.....and was he quiet and unassuming as I thought he was? Thanks for sharing mate....

Atherton and Hussain pretty much said the same thing.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

GWS - the fella seemed so quiet and unassuming....till he had bat in his hand.....like Gordon Greenidge, Smith had a cracking cut shot.....why was he called Judge mate?.....and was he quiet and unassuming as I thought he was? Thanks for sharing mate....

I am not sure when the nickname eventuated but when he was young his hair looked very similar to a judges wig and hence the nickname the Judge.
He was a guy who would share anything if you took an interest but probably would not offer it up. But he was certainly one of the boys also. He was very much loved and admired at our club, many players over the years came from international places and they had an ego and kept to themselves, Judge really embraced the club and was a genuine part of it. He never ever saw himself as better or bigger than us. He was simply a team mate. He will be missed mate by all who crossed his path.

 

[Rabish Binney]

From his wiki page..

"In 1994, before Smith scored 175 in the fifth and final Test against the West Indies, he was accused by the then England coach Keith Fletcher of "having too many fingers in too many pies"

Do we know what Fletcher meant by this?

 

[PhatBoy]

Do we know what Fletcher meant by this?

Looking a bit deeper and after reading an obituary, he had started a sporting goods business that I think included cricket bats etc and I’m assuming Fletcher had an issue with that, for starters.

Sounds like a right w***er.

Considering the quality, or lack of, the players they kept going back to, seems like the stupidest reason to not pick someone

 

[Plugger35]

I wonder if Smith being from South Africa played a role in him being dropped, although they had no problem picking Allan Lamb.

Also one of Smith's replacements was Graeme Hick from Zimbabwe and Smith was a much better test batsman than he ever was.