Cecilia “Bobby” Robinson died last Thursday at the age of 97. As many of you will remember she taught cricket at Roedean from 1949-81, was also deputy Housemistress of No.4 and then Housemistress in the Junior House.

Cecilia Mary Robinson played her first test match for England in 1949 and went on to play 14 Women’s Tests in a 15-year International career, averaging 33.16 with the bat and scoring two Test Centuries, both during the Women’s Ashes against Australia. She was made an honorary member of the MCC in 2000, a rare honour for a woman player. Last year, she received a County Cap as part of Kent County Cricket Club’s 150th Year Celebrations. You might be surprised to hear that Kent had not previously awarded caps to their women players, Cecilia was one of 51 Kent Women who were capped in 2020.

I know you will join me in sending our condolences to Cecilia’s family.

The ORA will be including an obituary in the next issue of the Old Roedeanians’ Magazine, so would welcome any contributions and memories from ORs.

We published an article on the award of her Kent Cap in the Old Roedeanians’ Magazine 2020 – “Bobby” Robinson receives County Cap as part of Kent County Cricket Club’s 150th Year Celebrations! - you can read the article by following this link: https://community.roedean.co.uk/news/ora-news/571/571-Bobby-Robinson-receives-County-Cap

You can also watch a film of the Kent v Australia match in 1951 which contains many glimpses of her https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-women-cricketers-kent-v-australia-1951-online