Full name Robin Geoffrey Marlar 1951–1968 Sussex Batting style Right-handed Name Robin Marlar | Bowling style Right-arm off-spin Role Journalist 1951–1953 Cambridge University Education Harrow School | |
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Born 1 February 1931 (age 93) ( 1931-02-01 ) Eastbourne, Sussex, England | ||
Robin Geoffrey Marlar (born 2 January 1931 in Eastbourne, Sussex) was an English cricketer and cricket journalist. He was educated at Harrow and Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Marlar played first-class cricket for Cambridge University, winning a blue in 1951, 1952 and 1953 (when he captained Cambridge to victory over Oxford), and Sussex between 1951 and 1968. An innovative off-break bowler, he took 970 wickets in 289 matches at an average of 25.22, with a personal best of 9/46 against Lancashire at Hove in 1955. He was a "shrewd and skilful" captain of Sussex between 1955 and 1959. He remains only one of five native-born cricketers to hold this post.
He had a successful journalistic career as an outspoken cricket correspondent of The Sunday Times, and wrote the illustrated history The Story of Cricket (1979).
Marlar stood as a Conservative candidate for Bolsover in the 1959 General Election, and a 1962 by-election at Leicester North East, then decades later was a parliamentary candidate for the Referendum Party in the 1993 Newbury by-election. He was appointed as the President of Sussex CCC for 2005 and President of MCC for 2005/2006.