CRICKET lovers on Merseyside are mourning the passing of WT “Robbie” Robins, who has died, aged 85, after a long illness.

Although a teacher by profession, Robins devoted much of his spare time to cricket and he will be particularly remembered for his deep knowledge of the laws of the game and as a trainer of umpires.

“Robbie taught umpires from the 1960s to the 1990s and I would have thought most current members of the Merseyside Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association were instructed by him,” said David Jones, the current president of the MCUA, an organisation which Robins helped to establish.

Robins’s expertise was recognised by the MCC when he was appointed to the committee charged with revising the laws of the game in 2000. He later helped to revise Tom Smith’s Cricket Umpiring and Scoring, a book which is still regarded as “the umpires’ bible”.

“Robbie knew the laws upside down and inside out and he was an excellent tutor, “ added Jones.

Robins ran school sides and and took an England under-19s schoolboys’ team to India and was Treasurer of both the Liverpool Competition and Sefton Park CC.