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Geoff Warren and Neil Robbins, advertising a meeting to raise funds for the 1954 Commonwealth Games team.
A column by Len Johnson
Neil Robbins knew Ron Clarke well enough to call him ‘Fat’, Clarke’s boyhood family nickname. He was a teammate of John Landy and Marjorie Jackson; a clubmate of Les Perry, Geoff Warren and Dave Stephens, ‘the Flying Milko’. He trained with Merv Lincoln and many others under legendary coach Franz Stampfl.
Robbins, who passed away on 6 December at the age of 91, was also Australia’s pioneer in the steeplechase, finishing seventh in the country’s first home Olympics in Melbourne in 1956, the first occasion Australia had been represented in the event. A lifelong supporter of Footscray Football Club (now the Western Bulldogs), he would have appreciated performing well on the MCG where the Bulldogs had won their first Aussie Rules premiership just two years earlier.