Peter Roebuck, who was found dead on Saturday 12 November aged 55, was a brilliant man fanatically dedicated to cricket.
As a batsman he proved a highly competent county player. As captain of Somerset he was the leading figure behind the coup which ousted Viv Richards and Joel Garner from the club, causing Ian Botham to resign in protest.
Roebuck batting against Oxfordshire, April 1985
After retiring from first-class cricket, Roebuck emigrated to Australia, where he became an authoritative, waspish and highly successful writer and commentator on the game.
In 2001, however, he was the subject of a humiliating scandal, in which he was found guilty of common assault after caning three 19-year-old youths who had been staying with him near Taunton for cricket coaching. To outsiders it seemed that he had emerged unscathed from this disaster; evidently, though, his demons were never slain.
Peter Michael Roebuck was born on March 6 1956, one of six children of two teachers – his father of Economics and his mother of Maths. Both parents were cricket enthusiasts; indeed his mother had kept wicket for the Oxford University Ladies team, which in turn would be captained by one of his sisters.
When Peter was a boy his family moved to Bath, where he would practise interminably by hitting a plastic ball against a wall of his parents' flat, while commentating on the state of play. He liked to recall that the tapping sounds made by this game greatly excited the occupants of the next door flat, who were given to holding séances.
When questions were asked about his intention of pursuing cricket as a career, Peter determined to prove that he was inured to the dangers of batting by facing fast bowlers at the indoor cricket school in Bath. He was duly hit, and hurt, but discovered that he was as keen as ever on the game. "That was the first hurdle overcome," he wrote.
At 13 and still a titch – 4ft 2in if Wisden is to believed – Roebuck played for Somerset Second, bowling leg breaks and googlies, and trying to muster enough strength to hit the ball off the square.
The combination of his intellectual and sporting achievements won him a scholarship to Millfield. His younger brother Paul and two of his sisters were also awarded scholarships to the school, while his parents were taken on as teachers.
Going up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Roebuck took first-class honours in Law, despite playing cricket for the university for three successive years. In the first of these, 1975, he scored 158 against Oxford, and in quick time.
In 1976, playing for a Combined Oxford and Cambridge side against the West Indians, he was hit by a bumper from Andy Roberts, and taken to hospital, where he was informed that if the blow had been a quarter of an inch away it might have been fatal. He then returned to the crease, only to have his cap knocked off by another Roberts delivery. Roebuck seemed to relish this harsh education.
He had already made his debut for Somerset in 1974. Though not blessed with outstanding natural talent, by 1978 he had become, by sheer determination, an important member of the county side.
The joke was that he performed the function of preventing Richards and Botham from batting together, as the two great men were liable to get out by trying to outdo each other.
Between 1979 and 1983 Somerset's star-studded team won five trophies in limited over cricket. It is doubtful whether Richards, Botham and Garner paid undue attention to their remote, bookish and bespectacled team-mate. This, however, was a mistake, for Roebuck possessed an intensely competitive spirit and extraordinary strength of will.
In 1983, with the luminaries of Somerset away playing in the World Cup, and Brian Rose injured, Roebuck – suddenly and surprisingly – found himself captaining the county for a few games. He enjoyed the experience, and began to think more deeply about how the team's performance might be improved.
In 1985 Somerset finished bottom of the championship, and Roebuck, appointed captain for the following year, did not shrink from the conclusion that the immortals in the team were no longer pulling their weight. Still more bravely, he determined to rectify matters.
The year 1986 proved almost as disastrous as the previous one, as Somerset finished in penultimate position. That August, Roebuck, as captain, secured the sacking of Richards and Garner in favour of the New Zealander Martin Crowe, whereupon Botham resigned out of loyalty to his friends.
To the extent that Somerset ascended the championship table to 11th place in both 1987 and 1988, Roebuck's actions may have been justified. Moreover, since 1984, when he hit seven 100s, his own batting had become formidably consistent.
In four successive seasons, from 1984 to 1987, he averaged more than 40, reaching a peak in the latter year at 49.95. In 1988 he was one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year.
His form slumped rather in 1988, but recovered after he handed over the captaincy to his friend Vic Marks. In 1989 he made a hundred against the Australians His highest first-class score, in 1986, was 221 not out, against a Nottinghamshire attack which included Richard Hadlee.
Roebuck retired from first-class cricket at the end of the season of 1991. In 355 games and 552 innings he had accumulated 17,558 runs at an average of 37.27. As an occasional bowler, variously described a medium-pacer and an off-spinner, he took 72 wickets at 49.16.
Between 1993 and 1999, and again in 2001, Roebuck captained Devon, which won four successive Minor Counties championships from 1994, as well as bringing off two one-day titles.
After 1991, however, his professional career was in Australia, where he became a trenchant and opinionated cricket correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age, and also won a high reputation as a commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Latterly, he also worked for the internet site Cricinfo.
Though his views, not least his campaign in 2008 against Ricky Ponting as Australia's captain, brought furious reaction from the public, Roebuck enjoyed living in Australia.
His prickly, confrontational, individualistic and courageously honest character suited the national temperament, while the standard of his writing did Cambridge proud. Many who worked with him thought of him as a friend, however resistant he might have been to the concept.
"I enjoyed his company and always felt I'd learnt something from him," remarked the hardly less contentious Ian Chappell, a former captain of Australia.
Roebuck also enjoyed visiting South Africa, and showed his generosity in the money he gave for helping Africans to obtain a university education.
Yet, as his conviction for the caning incident in 2001 showed, there was a darker side to his nature. The explanation he gave in court was typically unapologetic. He had told the boys, he said, that he would beat them if they did not conform to "house rules", and he had carried out this threat when they failed to conform to his standards. "I have no time for half-heartedness," he said. "My philosophy is 'through fire into light'."
He was given a suspended sentence of four months for each of the three offences. For all his apparent coolness, however, it seems he was unable to face the consequences when the police visited him on Saturday night.
Roebuck published It Never Rains: A Cricketer's Lot (1985); Sometimes I Forgot to Laugh (2004); It Takes All Sorts: Celebrating Cricket's Colourful Characters (2005); and In It To Win: the Australian Cricket Supremacy (2007).
Peter Roebuck, born March 6 1956, died November 12 2011
At 13 and still a titch – 4ft 2in if Wisden is to believed – Roebuck played for Somerset Second, bowling leg breaks and googlies, and trying to muster enough strength to hit the ball off the square.
The combination of his intellectual and sporting achievements won him a scholarship to Millfield. His younger brother Paul and two of his sisters were also awarded scholarships to the school, while his parents were taken on as teachers.
Going up to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Roebuck took first-class honours in Law, despite playing cricket for the university for three successive years. In the first of these, 1975, he scored 158 against Oxford, and in quick time.
In 1976, playing for a Combined Oxford and Cambridge side against the West Indians, he was hit by a bumper from Andy Roberts, and taken to hospital, where he was informed that if the blow had been a quarter of an inch away it might have been fatal. He then returned to the crease, only to have his cap knocked off by another Roberts delivery. Roebuck seemed to relish this harsh education.
He had already made his debut for Somerset in 1974. Though not blessed with outstanding natural talent, by 1978 he had become, by sheer determination, an important member of the county side.
The joke was that he performed the function of preventing Richards and Botham from batting together, as the two great men were liable to get out by trying to outdo each other.
Between 1979 and 1983 Somerset's star-studded team won five trophies in limited over cricket. It is doubtful whether Richards, Botham and Garner paid undue attention to their remote, bookish and bespectacled team-mate. This, however, was a mistake, for Roebuck possessed an intensely competitive spirit and extraordinary strength of will.
In 1983, with the luminaries of Somerset away playing in the World Cup, and Brian Rose injured, Roebuck – suddenly and surprisingly – found himself captaining the county for a few games. He enjoyed the experience, and began to think more deeply about how the team's performance might be improved.
In 1985 Somerset finished bottom of the championship, and Roebuck, appointed captain for the following year, did not shrink from the conclusion that the immortals in the team were no longer pulling their weight. Still more bravely, he determined to rectify matters.
The year 1986 proved almost as disastrous as the previous one, as Somerset finished in penultimate position. That August, Roebuck, as captain, secured the sacking of Richards and Garner in favour of the New Zealander Martin Crowe, whereupon Botham resigned out of loyalty to his friends.
To the extent that Somerset ascended the championship table to 11th place in both 1987 and 1988, Roebuck's actions may have been justified. Moreover, since 1984, when he hit seven 100s, his own batting had become formidably consistent.
In four successive seasons, from 1984 to 1987, he averaged more than 40, reaching a peak in the latter year at 49.95. In 1988 he was one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year.
His form slumped rather in 1988, but recovered after he handed over the captaincy to his friend Vic Marks. In 1989 he made a hundred against the Australians His highest first-class score, in 1986, was 221 not out, against a Nottinghamshire attack which included Richard Hadlee.
Roebuck retired from first-class cricket at the end of the season of 1991. In 355 games and 552 innings he had accumulated 17,558 runs at an average of 37.27. As an occasional bowler, variously described a medium-pacer and an off-spinner, he took 72 wickets at 49.16.
Between 1993 and 1999, and again in 2001, Roebuck captained Devon, which won four successive Minor Counties championships from 1994, as well as bringing off two one-day titles.
After 1991, however, his professional career was in Australia, where he became a trenchant and opinionated cricket correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age, and also won a high reputation as a commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Latterly, he also worked for the internet site Cricinfo.
Though his views, not least his campaign in 2008 against Ricky Ponting as Australia's captain, brought furious reaction from the public, Roebuck enjoyed living in Australia.
His prickly, confrontational, individualistic and courageously honest character suited the national temperament, while the standard of his writing did Cambridge proud. Many who worked with him thought of him as a friend, however resistant he might have been to the concept.
"I enjoyed his company and always felt I'd learnt something from him," remarked the hardly less contentious Ian Chappell, a former captain of Australia.
Roebuck also enjoyed visiting South Africa, and showed his generosity in the money he gave for helping Africans to obtain a university education.
Yet, as his conviction for the caning incident in 2001 showed, there was a darker side to his nature. The explanation he gave in court was typically unapologetic. He had told the boys, he said, that he would beat them if they did not conform to "house rules", and he had carried out this threat when they failed to conform to his standards. "I have no time for half-heartedness," he said. "My philosophy is 'through fire into light'."
He was given a suspended sentence of four months for each of the three offences. For all his apparent coolness, however, it seems he was unable to face the consequences when the police visited him on Saturday night.
Roebuck published It Never Rains: A Cricketer's Lot (1985); Sometimes I Forgot to Laugh (2004); It Takes All Sorts: Celebrating Cricket's Colourful Characters (2005); and In It To Win: the Australian Cricket Supremacy (2007).
Peter Roebuck, born March 6 1956, died November 12 2011
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