LIves in Cricket No 31 - Walter Robins

10 Early Years in Staffordshire Vivian continued to make progress with his career with the Post Office and soon he and Mabel moved into their new home at 15 Corporation Street. In 1905 they celebrated the birth of their first child Eleanor Letitia, followed a year later, on 3 June 1906, by Robert Walter Vivian, and a year after that by William Vernon Harry. Fatherhood seems to have agreed with Vivian as he was elected captain of the club’s Wednesday first eleven in 1905, won the first-eleven fielding prize in 1906 and in 1907 ‘scored more runs than any other member of the club in first-eleven matches’ and obtained a fair number of wickets. The census for 1911 shows that Vivian had now progressed to the position of sorting clerk and telegraphist with the Post Office. Not long after the census was taken, all three children, Walter, Vernon and Eleanor, were spending most of the day at Lichfield Street in the care of their Auntie Vera, as Vivian and Mabel had moved the family into a larger house, Green End, in the High Street, where Mabel was taking student lodgers while Vivian was working longer hours. The influence of the Robins family within the Stafford Cricket Club had grown with the passing years; in 1911 Vernon was voted general secretary and Vivian the match secretary. In 1912 Veral became the vice-captain of the Saturday second eleven and Vivian returned to the Wednesday firsts as vice-captain. From 1902 to 1912 Stafford Cricket Club first eleven played 341 matches, winning 43% and losing 29%. They reached the semi-final of the North Staffordshire Cup in 1904 and the final in 1906, played at the County Ground in Stoke. The club will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2014 and today boasts four Saturday elevens, one Sunday side, and four junior teams. Grammar School boy. Robbie (left) with sister Letitia and brother Vernon.