summer playing as an amateur in Surrey, for Ashford Cricket Club.

The opportunity came after Robinson, 21, had a successful stint at the MCC coaching course last summer. He spent a month at Lord's with 20 youngsters from ICC countries such as Bangladesh, Kenya, Italy, Argentina, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

"Paul Farberce, one of the coaches there, asked me at the end of the coaching course if I wanted to play in England and said he would look for a club for me,'' said Robinson who left Bermuda last night. "Last October I called him up and asked him about it and he asked me where I wanted to play. I told him in Surrey because my uncle stays there so he got in contact with Ashford Cricket Club.'' Robinson will be staying with his uncle while turning out for Ashford in the Slazenger League. Ashford have four teams in different leagues, with the first team finishing seventh in their league. Each club is only allowed one foreigner and Robinson was excited to be their selection.

"Hopefully, if I do well I might be able to return,'' said the former Bermuda youth team captain. "I don't have any plans to come back for Eastern Counties. My aim is to play professionally so I'm using this as a stepping stone.'' At last year's coaching course he met up with two players, from Canada and Denmark, whom he remembers from his two trips to the International Youth Tournaments in Denmark in 1993 and Holland in '95.

During his time in England, Robinson was able to play some matches and found the conditions a new challenge. He says his batting improved the most.

"I got a lot of batting time out there and also experimented a lot with bowling spin,'' said Robinson.

"The conditions were more receptive to medium pace than my off-spin but the leg-spinners got more turn than the off-spinners. The wickets were different with a lot of grass on them. The training wickets were real fast but when we got to games they were slower. It was pretty easy to adjust for me, but I was ahead of my shots a couple of times.'' Ashford play about 30 league and cup games during the season.