Robin Hobbs: England and Essex bowler dies aged 81

Robin Hobbs died on Sunday at the age of 81

The England cricketer Robin Hobbs has died at the age of 81.

The leg spinner played 325 first-class matches for Essex between 1961 and 1975, and took 763 wickets for the county side.

He claimed more than 1,000 wickets during his career and also played first-class cricket for Glamorgan.

On Sunday, his son Nick Hobbs wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: "Today I said goodbye to my best mate. Rest in peace my mate."

In 2020, Hobbs spoke to BBC Essex Sport and said: "I look back on it with great pleasure that I got over a 1,000 wickets as a leg spinner because it will never be done again now with the reduction of county cricket matches.

"I was very very lucky in my career".

Hobbs first played club cricket at Chadwell Heath in east London, and went on to nearby Chingford, aged 17, where he took more than 100 wickets on what he described as "fairly dodgy pitches".