Robert Henderson

ROBERT HENDERSON was born in Surrey on the 30th March, 1865, and found a place in the county eleven in 1883, the year in which the great revival of Surrey cricket fairly commenced. He made his mark at once, his straight bat and thoroughly correct style of play showing that in addition to his natural aptitude for the game he had been extremely well coached. Surrey played twenty four matches that season, and Henderson took part in all but one of them, scoring 581 runs with an average of 15.26. His play made such a great impression that the strongest hopes were entertained of his future, but for a time his career was seriously interfered with by bad health. Possibly the strain of three-day matches proved too much for so young a player, but whatever the cause of his breakdown he was only able to play in four matches in 1884. He took a sea voyage for the benefit of his health, and nothing was seen of him in connection with Surrey's important matches in 1885. Even in 1886 he only assisted in four engagements, but in 1887-88, with his health re-established, he played pretty regularly for the eleven, appearing indeed in 1888 in 22 of the 26 matches played. Last summer saw him in better form than ever; indeed, if he had done nothing beyond winning the return match with Yorkshire at the Oval his one innings of 59 not out would almost have entitled him to be mentioned among the distinguished batsmen of the year. Henderson, who is personally one of the most popular of cricketers, is a fairly good change bowler, and is much quicker and smarter in the field than he used to be.