He began as a promising wicket-keeper batsman but – "There was no room to keep wicket so, anxious to impress Mr Hirst, I bowled a few quick leg-breaks and googlies."
He was invited to the famous "winter shed" at Headingley and told, in true Yorkshire fashion, to forget the leg breaks and concentrate on off spin.
Yorkshire had Hedley Verity to spin the ball away from the bat and needed an off spinner as variation as the great George Macaulay was coming to the end of his career.
Robinson made his Yorkshire debut at Worcester in 1934 against Worcestershire, taking 4–31 and watching the 18-year-old Len Hutton score 196, his first century.
The Australians rated him too, Ian Johnson, Australia's premier off-spinner, sought Robinson's advice when touring England in 1948.
As Robinson struggled to his feet, grinning and holding the ball high to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd, Mitchell – "grim as a piece of stone from Baildon Moor" according to Herbert Sutcliffe – muttered from the side of his mouth: "Gerrup.
After the 1949 season, with Ray Illingworth emerging, Robinson was released to spend three summers with Somerset, for whom he played wearing his fading old white rose cap.
Despite taking over a thousand first-class wickets Robinson was never selected for England though he spun the ball and extracted bounce on most surfaces.