captained an England XI against a Dominions XI led by the Australian Keith Carmody. The Dominions team included the future Australian Test all-rounder Keith Miller, and the West Indies Test bowler Learie Constantine. In a close game the England XI were victorious by eight runs. Various members of the Robins family contributed to cricket, for Middlesex and elsewhere. Walter's younger brother, William Vernon Harry, a career Army officer, played several first-class matches for the Army during the 1930s. Walter Robins's son, Robert Victor Charles, known as Charles Robins and, like his father, a leg-spin and googly bowler, was captain of the Eton XI in 1953, and played for Middlesex between 1953 and 1960. Walter's grandson Charles William Veral (born 1965) played for Middlesex 2nd XI in 1983. After his playing days ended, Robins continued to serve Middlesex as a member of its general and cricket committees. He died from bronchopneumonia, aged 62, on 12 December 1968. Appraisal In its 1969 obituary tribute, Wisden acknowledges Robins as "one of the most dynamic cricketers of his time", who maintained an "aggressively enterprising" attitude towards the game: "Impatient of dull cricket, Robins wasted few scoring opportunities as a batsman, employing his nimble footwork and flexible wrists to the full, especially in cutting and driving". There was some early criticism of his effectiveness as a bowler – he sometimes tried to bowl too fast, and was erratic in maintaining length – but Wilde's analysis of English Test bowlers of leg-breaks and googlies shows Robins, at international level, to have been one of the most effective of this kind in terms both of wickets taken and of cost per wicket. There were divided opinions on Robins's effectiveness as a selector. Doug Insole, who served with him between 1962 and 1964, considered that his judgement of a player was "excellent". Others were less sure; Wilde records that during Robins's first stint as a selector, 1946–48, the Australians were dismissive of his judgement, an opinion apparently shared by the former England captain Bob Wyatt, who "would have liked more intelligent people on the committee". Gibson is critical of Robins's efforts to replace Hutton as captain in 1954, an action which Wilde describes as "disloyal and unhelpful". It seems that Robins was not particularly popular with the players of a later generation, and that he made little effort to understand them. According to Wilde, Robins failed to recognise