Robin Smith: Career In Numbers

The cut shot. The fearlessness. The charisma.

Robin Smith will be remembered as one of Hampshire and England’s finest batters. One who stood tall and took the game on against some of the best pace attacks the world has ever seen.

His Hampshire career spanned 21 years from 1983 to 2003 in which he played 654 matches and scored 31,018 runs across First-Class (307 matches) and List A (347 matches) formats.

He featured in 62 Test matches and 71 ODIs for England between 1988 and 1996 where he scored 13 centuries and 43 fifties.

Smith, affectionately known as ‘The Judge’, made his Hampshire debut against the touring Pakistan side in June 1982 aged 18 years old.

He then made his Championship and List A debuts against Lancashire and Essex respectively in 1983.

In his first Championship innings, against Lancashire at Dean Park in Bournemouth, Smith made an unbeaten century, the first of 49 hundreds for Hampshire along with 83 half-centuries.

In 1987, Smith recorded his career-best for Hampshire, against Essex at Southend-on-Sea in the County Championship.

Walking out to bat with Hampshire three down with five runs on the board, Smith racked up 209 not out from 269 balls with 30 fours. Along with 61 from David Turner and 58 from Bobby Parks, Hampshire recovered to 373-6 declared to then bowl Essex out for just 91, where Smith took three catches.

Smith made his bow on the international stage in 1988 against the fearsome West Indies who sported a bowling attack of Hampshire teammate Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, and Courtney Walsh, with legends of the game in Desmond Haynes, Jeffrey Dujon, Carl Hooper, Viv Richards, Gus Logie, Keith Arthurton, and Roger Harper also in the XI.

The Judge made 38 in his first innings and the match was won by ten wickets by the tourists, who won four out of five Test series.

At Old Trafford in 1989, Smith made his first international century.

It was the fourth Test of the Ashes and the hope of a series win was gone after Australia won the first two matches at Headingley and Lord’s, with a drawn third Test at Edgbaston.

Coming in at 23-2, Smith piled on the runs to finish on 143 from 285 balls with 15 fours. The next highest individual score for England was 39.

Smith would make a second hundred in as many Tests. After Australia posted a mammoth 602-6 declared at Trent Bridge – Geoff Marsh and Mark Taylor both made hundreds, with Taylor finishing on 219 – England slumped to 14-3 in reply.

The fearless Smith was at his best once again, with 101 from 150 balls against Terry Alderman, Geoff Lawson, Trevor Hohns, and Merv Hughes.

In 1990, Smith managed four centuries, the most in a single year in his England career.

He began with 128 (168) in the first ODI against New Zealand, then made three centuries against India – 103 (105) in the second ODI of the series and back-to-back hundreds of 100* (155) and 121 (197) as England won the three-match series 1-0.

His highest score on the international stage would turn out to be his last century – 175 (315) against the West Indies in Antigua in 1994, a match that would be remembered more for a certain Brian Charles Lara breaking the then-world record with 375.

Smith’s most prolific years for Hampshire, in terms of centuries, came in 1989, 1993, and 1994 – he scored seven centuries in each year.

His final match for Hampshire came against Somerset at Taunton in 2003. Smith retired hurt on seven but returned to the crease to score 56 not out, his final half-century for the club.