Robert MacDonald (14 February 1870 – 7 March 1946) was an Australian cricketer who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

for

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and Leicestershire from 1894 to 1903. He was born in

Clunes, Victoria Clunes is a town in Victoria, Australia, 36 kilometres north of Ballarat, in the Shire of Hepburn. At the 2016 census it had a population of 1,728. History Pre-colonial The Djadja Wurrung people were the first inhabitants of the regi ...

, Australia, and died in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. T ...

. He was a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofacial co ...

Life and career

Born in the goldfields town of Clunes in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Robbie MacDonald moved to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

in 1881 with his mother and his stepfather, Justice A. B. Noel. After attending

Brisbane Boys Grammar School , motto_translation = Nothing Without Labour , established = 1868 , type = Independent, day & boarding , gender = Boys , denomination = Non-denominational , slogan = , key_people = , ...

MacDonald studied dentistry at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

, where he excelled. He was the first Queenslander to graduate as a doctor of dental surgery with honours. In cricket, MacDonald had a reputation as an imperturbable defensive batsman. The English player and writer

C. B. Fry Charles Burgess Fry (25 April 1872 – 7 September 1956) was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could ...

said of him in 1901: "he pays extreme attention to not getting out, and has no regard for the time it takes to make his runs. He is an excellent antidote to the modern tendency to try for high hitting. He never hits a ball, but just pushes and blocks, pushes and blocks. His skill, however, in defence is most remarkable: and I doubt whether there has ever been a more perfect player in his own particular line." In a match for Leicestershire against Sussex in 1902 he batted for three and three-quarter hours for 33, in what an English newspaper called "a wonderfully patient innings". In 1902-03 he batted 375 minutes in the match to make 51 and 61 not out when Queensland lost narrowly to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. MacDonald's highest first-class score was 147

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

for Leicestershire against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

in 1901, when he added 142 for the fourth wicket with John King and then made an unbroken stand of 226 for the fifth wicket with

Frederic Geeson Frederic Geeson (23 August 1862 – 2 May 1920) was an English cricketer active from 1892 to 1913 who played for Leicestershire. He was born in Redmile and died in Johannesburg. He appeared in 151 first-class matches as a righthanded batsman wh ...

. Leicestershire won by an innings. A week earlier he had made 127 against Sussex, batting for about six hours. His only first-class century for Queensland came on the state team's tour of New Zealand in 1896–97, when he made 114 against

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region ...

, adding 228 for the sixth wicket with

Owen Cowley Owen Cowley (14 December 1868 – 27 February 1922) was an Australian cricketer. He played eleven first-class matches for New South Wales and Queensland between 1893/94 and 1896/97. All of Cowley's first-class cricket was played in New Ze ...

. Playing for

Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

in the Brisbane senior competition in 1898–99, he made 812 runs in 13 innings, with an average of 203.00, as he was

nine times. MacDonald served as secretary of the

Queensland Cricket Association Queensland Cricket, formerly known as the Queensland Cricket Association, is the governing body of Cricket in Queensland, Australia. Formed in 1876, it is directly responsible for the Queensland Bulls, Queensland Fire, Allan Border Field and Qu ...

in 1894–95, and secretary of Leicestershire from 1922 to 1930. He also represented Australia on the

Imperial Cricket Conference The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are 108 national associations, with 12 Full Members and 96 Associate Members. Founded in 1909 as the '' ...

between the wars.''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'', Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, p. 321. He was instrumental in the reconciliation of the Australian and English cricket authorities after the acrimonious

Bodyline series Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia. It was designed to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's leading batsman, ...

between the two countries in 1932–33. Sensing that feeling in England in the 1933 season was turning against the bodyline tactics that had given England victory in the 1932–33 series, he advised the Australian board to maintain gentle but firm pressure on the English authorities to forswear such tactics during the forthcoming Australian tour of England in 1934.

David Frith David Edward John Frith (born 16 March 1937) is a cricket writer and historian. Cricinfo describes him as "an author, historian, and founding editor of '' Wisden Cricket Monthly''". Life and career David Frith was born in Gloucester Place in L ...

, ''Bodyline Autopsy'', ABC Books, Sydney, 2002, pp. 364–75.

References

External links

*
Robert MacDonald
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:MacDonald, Robbie 1870 births 1946 deaths People from Clunes, Victoria People educated at Brisbane Grammar School University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine alumni Australian cricketers Australian cricket administrators Leicestershire cricketers Queensland cricketers Australian dentists Cricketers from Victoria (state)