Devon Cricket Board - Conrad Sutcliffe reflects on Peter Roebuck's time with Devon

Website news editor Conrad Sutcliffe (left) on the dressing room balcony at Lord's interviewing Peter Roebuck after the 1998 win over Shropshire in the MCC Trophy final. Photo: Gary Bowles Collection

CONRAD SUTCLIFFE has been writing about Devon cricket for 24 seasons and didn’t miss a match during Peter Roebuck’s time as captain. Here he takes a personal look back at cricket’s troubled genius, who died on Saturday aged 55.

REPORTING on Devon during Peter Roebuck’s first reign as captain (1993-99) was an experience that makes riding the Big Dipper at Blackpool Pleasure Beach look tame.

Roebuck had joined Devon midway through the 1992 season and at the time no one realised where this particular roller coaster was going.

He was well known in Devon cricket circles having played for Somerset since the age of 13 and through his regular column in the Sunday Independent, a paper which was compulsive reading for all cricket fans then as it was the only place to fine all the Devon League results from the previous day.

What was generally known about Roebuck was he was a cautious opening batsman with 17,000-plus First Class runs to his credit; he had been heavily embroiled in the departures of Viv Richards, Joel Garner and Ian Botham from Somerset in 1986 and had captained England to defeat against Holland in a one-day game at Amstelveen in 1989.

He cared little for his personal reputation, was prone to lecturing late into the night in hotel bars about his role in the Somerset fall out, but could get seriously irritable if the Holland affair came up.

Roebuck’s tetchy response when the Dutch were mentioned was always: “Why does no one ever remember we played Holland again the following day and thrashed them out of sight?”

Roebuck had been talent spotted by Devon team manager Jack Davey during a pre-season friendly against Somerset in April 1992 and talked into it by then secretary Geoff Evans.

“Geoff said to me ‘he does know we don’t pay anyone’ and once I reassured him Peter wasn’t in it for the money we got him on board,” Davey recalled.

Davey, a wily old seamer for 15 seasons with Gloucestershire, suspected newly appointed captain Nick Folland wouldn’t be around for long as Somerset were showing an interest in signing him.

Folland saw out the season, duly signed for Somerset as Davey had predicted and the obvious choice as the new captain was P M Roebuck, who had spent the season playing for Sidmouth on a Saturday afternoon but was about to join Budleigh, where he spent the rest of his career.

Roebuck hadn’t played the entire season and after bagging a pair against Dorset at Sidmouth – Julian Shackleton got him both times – he wondered aloud whether he was really cut out for Minor Counties cricket.

The chance to captain a side one more time with a blank canvas to work on probably persuaded him to carry on.

Roebuck was by nature a messianic leader. He listened not always politely to the selection committee – then picked the team he wanted anyway. What Roebuck wanted in the team were disciples and anyone who didn’t sing from the same hymn sheet didn’t last long in his plans.

Year one wasn’t great – an early exit from the one-day competition won by Folland the previous season and a middling season in the Western Division of the Minor Counties Championship – although there were signs of things to come.

Roebuck took up bowling – he topped he averages with his off-breaks and cutters – and left the batting to Andy Pugh, Nick Gaywood and Steve Willis.

The following year Devon did the double – they beat Lincolnshire at Lord’s in the cup and Cambridgeshire at Worcesteshire on bonus points to win the Minor Counties title with Gaywood, Willis and Gareth Townsend leading the batting aggregates and Roebuck taking 44 wickets at less than 10 each, including nine for 12 against Oxfordshire.

Folland quit pro cricket after two years with Somerset and was back with Devon full time in 1995.

There was no finer batsman than Folland in Minor Counties cricket at that time, only team-mate Gaywood could compare in terms of runs scored, and with Roebuck bowling sides out for fun success was assured.

Three more titles were won and along the way there were whispers that Roebuck could be asked to captain England. It may have sounded far-fetched, but the cricket romantic in Roebuck was intrigued by the proposition.

He was a great admirer of the legendary S F Barnes of Staffordshire, who had appeared for England as a Minor Counties player between 1901-1914, and if it was good enough for Sydney then why not give it a go? The call from Lord’s never came.

Roebuck started off as mildly eccentric – forever borrowing kit as he hadn’t brought everything – and this haphazard approach extended to his post-match attire.

The captain may be wearing his county blazer and slacks, but instead of pants he often had on an old jock strap as he had forgotten to pack his boxers.

Players soon came to learn any slip up in the field would result in instant retribution from the captain. Townsend – strictly a batsman – found himself brought on to bowl against Wiltshire after a perceived howler in the field.

He was surprised to be brought on and puzzled to be taken off two overs later after picking up a wicket.

And then there was the Truro Incident, where Devon’s fielding against Cornwall one morning left a lot to be desired, possibly because one or two players had spent just a bit too long in the pub the night before.

One of the ‘senior pros’ – I seem to recall it was Gaywood – dived over a ball as it skidded across the outfield for four. Cue explosion by the captain.

“You lot on the leg-side go and chance places with that lot on the off-side and see if you can do any better,” said Roebuck as nine fielders changed places mid-over.

Roebuck wasn’t a big drinker – he wasn’t abstemious, but would rather nurse a half of bitter for an hour while talking about the game – so pub crawls were generally out.

He would go out with the troops from time to time and one soiree that sticks out was around the pubs of Hereford in 1996 with a young Chris Read in tow.

Drink was taken – not excessively – then off we marched in search of a curry house.

“Follow me,” urged Roebuck “I know just the place.” He certainly did. The only curry parlour in the United Kingdom with no drinks license!

Three weeks later Roebuck ventured out after dark again. This time we spent an enjoyable evening playing in a pub quiz in Colwyn Bay, then all got lost following the leader who had forgotten the name of the hotel we were all staying in.

Opposing captains on the Minor Counties circuit tended to feel Roebuck had entered into a Faustian pact with the devil, such was his happy knack of winning matches.

Nothing of the sort. Roebuck always tried to play attacking cricket and subscribed to the theory you had to be prepared to lose to win. He didn’t go a lot on draws, unless it was Cheshire, for whom he had little or no time for reasons that were never fully apparent.

Devon lost three games in nine starts winning the title in 1996 and 1997, which defied the conventional thinking of the time that you had to stop the other team winning if you couldn’t win it yourself.

Roebuck could never fully shake off the shadow of the Somerset Affair of 1986 and for years afterwards he was criticised directly and indirectly by friends of those involved.

Take if from me the dirt mongers of Fleet Street frequently sniffed around looking for something juicy on the un-married Devon captain.

Rumours flew around about the captain’s private life – often fanciful, never proven at that time – and a lesser man would have cracked under the drip of innuendo.

His day job as a broadcast and print reporter on cricket – and his often forthright views on the talents or otherwise of this or that player – made for some interesting confrontations.

Roebuck had a sharp tongue if he chose to use it, but that was nothing compared to the verbal battering he took from the Leicestershire team at Exmouth during a 1997 NatWest Trophy game.

Roby had used one of his columns to take a swipe at Leicestershire’s Vince Wells. He got both barrels from all and sundry when he went out to bat.

Former Essex paceman Stuart Turner, by then with Cambridgeshire, didn’t exactly cover himself in glory with comments he made about Roebuck either.

So when Roebuck was arrested and charged in 1999 with beating three South African lads staying with him at his Taunton home, his enemies licked their lips.

It took almost two years for the case to reach court, by when Roebuck had stood down as captain. He was given three four-month jail terms suspended for two years after pleading guilty.

There is an old expression about never going back which a wily old campaigner like Peter Roebuck should have known.

When Folland stood down as captain due to pressure of work two games into the 2001 season, Roebuck was re-instated as captain. He had barely played for two years and something of the old zing had gone.

The wickets had dried up and the strain of waiting for the court case to be heard had clearly taken a toll.

Devon reached the one-day finals in 2001 and 2002, losing them both. Roebuck’s decision to bat first at Lord’s on a green top against Norfolk cost Devon the 2001 final.

Roebuck didn’t get it wrong very often, but he did at Lord’s - and he slipped up again the following year by dropping Mark Richards for the final against Warwickshire Board XI.

Richards had played in every round up to the final, but turned up at New Road to find he was 12th man. He never appeared for Devon again – and neither did Peter Roebuck, who made a brief retirement announcement in the dressing room and left immediately.

It was an unsatisfactory end to his second career, but in the grand scheme of things the positives always outweighed the negatives during Roebuck’s time with Devon. Having said that, Devon were fortunate to have him though and his record speaks for itself.

Intelligent, irascible, insular and introspective. He was all those things and a few more besides. He shunned friendships in the accepted sense of the world, although he had many aquaintences who thought highly of him. An evening in the man's company dispelled most peoples pre-conceptions, which were often based on misinformation spread after the Somerset Affair. Those of us who knew him best often wondered if he would be a happier person with a companion - male or female - in his life? We all need someone to lean on from time to time.

The ultimate sadness is that Peter Roebuck took his own life in a most bizarre manner. No doubt the full story will emerge over the coming days and weeks, once the Cape Town police confirm what they were doing in his hotel room on Saturday night.

Those of us who knew him well – and I count myself as one of them – will be hoping nothing sordid comes out.

One tribute penned for an Australian paper described Roebuck as ‘the Bard of our summer game’ due to the quality of his writing.

It seems only right and proper to close with a few words from the other Bard, Shakespeare himself.

“He was a man, take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again.”