Rob Andrew is a legend of England rugby who won 71 caps for his country and was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame. However, it is a lifelong love of another sport that brought him to Sussex.
He took over the reins as chief executive of Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017 after 35 years in rugby. This is far from his first association with the summer sport though. Brought up in the northeast, Rob’s early life was dominated by rugby and cricket running in tandem. Summers were spent on the school and village cricket fields of North Yorkshire and County Durham, while the winters saw him in action on the rugby pitch.
At Cambridge University he captained the cricket team in the Varsity Match at Lord’s. He scored a first-class century against Nottinghamshire and spent a season with the Yorkshire Second XI. All the while he turned out for Cambridge at rugby, representing them in rugby’s annual Varsity match at Twickenham.
“It’s always been a joint love and I’ve been very lucky to have had that throughout my life,” he says. “I have been very blessed to be involved in both sports at the level that I have. Cricket just felt like a natural progression when I came down to Sussex.”
His love affair with rugby began at Barnard Castle School where he would forge an enduring partnership with future England teammate Rory Underwood.
“Rory and I were in the same house, we were in the same year. We came together at the age of 11 in September 1974. My first rugby match was with Rory in the under12s against Durham School. The coach put Rory on the left wing and he put me at flyhalf and we stayed there ever since! That clearly had an enormous impact on what the rest of my life was going to be like.”
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Sussex Life.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 2020 edition of Sussex Life.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
Decorative art
Not simply functional, treat your walls like an extension of your personality
ON THE FRONT FOOT
The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
THE DIARY
17 exciting things to do this month in East and West Sussex
All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
10 OF THE BEST Meat-free restaurants in Brighton and Hove
Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
