Greenfingers 'Robbo' hands over the Ground Safety officers job to Paul Bulbeck

With the staff covering the ground to protect it from the driving wind and rain the County Ground in Taunton was a sorry place to be on Tuesday morning.

After some of the best ever weather for this time of year, the day before the Cidermen play their first pre-season three day friendly against Glamorgan, the heavens opened and the players were sadly confined to indoor nets in the Centre of Excellence.

As he sat looking out across the windswept ground former Somerset favourite Peter Robinson explained that April 1st was a bit of a special occasion for him. "This is my first day as a part timer here since I joined the club all those years ago, and it's just about typical that it's pouring down with rain. Still I suppose one good thing is that it will help to germinate my parsnip seeds!" he told me.

The former Worcestershire player who made the journey down the A38 in 1965 has held almost every job that there is at the club since then, including being first team coach during the `Glory Years' when Somerset tasted the first success of their long and colourful history.

Since 1999 one of `Robbo's' major responsibilities has been that of Ground Safety Officer at the club, a job that has increased considerably since he took it on.

Earlier this year he celebrated his sixtieth birthday and decided that it was time to relinquish the post and give himself more time to concentrate on doing the job he enjoys most, cricket coaching.

`Robbo' told me: "The Ground Safety Officer's job started in 1999 with the World Cup, and since then it has just got more and more to do, so I wasn't sorry to hand it over yesterday to somebody else."

However the former Somerset all rounder will not be lost to the club. When I spoke to him he had just finished working with a group of youngsters from Minehead Middle School who were working at the Playing for Success Centre at the County Ground as part of the Exmoor Extension Project.

He told me: "I shall have more time to coach cricket now, and will spend time working on one on one and group sessions, as well as continuing my role as cricket secretary which involves sorting out the second eleven fixtures, dealing with the cricket balls and other jobs on match days."

`Robbo' is also the official coach to the Somerset Women's Cricket team, which includes the Somerset Under 17 and Under 15 Girls teams, and on Wednesday evening he will be attending their pre season meeting in Taunton.

The job of Ground Safety Officer at Somerset County Cricket Club has been taken over by Paul Bulbeck.

The former police inspector who lives in Taunton is the father of left arm seamer Matt, and his son in law Guy Wolfenden works in the Centre of Excellence at the County Ground, so he is certainly no stranger to the Somerset cricket scene.