In what proved a memorable weekend for men’s and women’s cricket in Ireland, a little piece of history was also being commemorated at Anglesea Road. The newly created seating area in the corner at the Dunluce end of the ground was being dedicated to the memory of one of the club’s most popular figures, Bob Stanton. The dedication ceremony did not quite go as planned as Merrion bowled out Leinster well before the scheduled interval and took an early tea. But the cricket must come first. Something which Robbie, who over his long career missed more than one family event for cricket, would have approved of.
The unveiling of a plaque to Robbie was done
by Arlene and witnessed by a large attendance including old team mates as well as younger members in the club who played with him in his later years.
John Heavey, who served with Robbie on Merrion’s 1st XI for 15 years, spoke of his dedication to the club both on and off the field. He reminded us that the seating area is in the exact spot that Robbie as a youngster used to climb over the wall from his back garden into the club. A practice now wisely made impossible by the new feature.
The memories of Robbie for those who have come more recently to the club are of someone who was always around the club, serving on committees, helping out on the ground between innings, parking cars and, seemingly defying age, still scoring runs in abundance. For those with longer memories Robbie is recalled as a medium [slow] bowler with a lovely high action and later, having reinventing himself, as an opening bat. For the record keepers he is noted for playing more senior matches [394] for Merrion than anyone else in the club’s 100 years as a senior club, over a career that spanned 28 years from 1979 to 2006.
Although there are details missing for a few years, there is no doubt that Robbie played more matches for Merrion’s teams [as a Senior Cricketer, in youth cricket and as he moved down the teams of what was once called Junior Cricket] that anyone it its history. Since 2011 [the date from which records are maintained by Cricket Leinster] he took part in 195 competitive games scoring over 4,000 runs along the way. Adding in some additional Alan Murray T20 games and 24 Irish Senior Cup matches, plus the missing years, and it is likely that Robbie turned out for Merrion teams around 750 times. A record which may never be beaten.
As a senior cricketer Robbie is one of only seven Merrion players who appear in the Cricket Leinster All-Time Senior All Rounder Averages with 300 wickets and 4,637 runs. His best bowling performance was 8/16 against Pembroke in 1988 and his top score 91* ten years later in a league game against Leinster. But his contribution to the club was much more than this and it is as a team mate, clubman and friend that he will be best remembered.
Senior Record: Extract from Derek Scott’s records of Senior Cricket in Leinster.
Derek Scott also went on to note that Robbie scored 16 half centuries, made 500 runs in a season in 1998, took 5 wickets in an innings seven times, led the Meriron bowling averages in 1982 and from 1984 to 1988, took 20 wickets and scored 200 runs in a season in 1985, played in 59 successive senior games between 1996 and 1999, was on the Senior [Division B] winning sides in 1997 and 1999 and was part of the Senior League Cup [Lewis Traub] winning team in 1999.
In the last in a very tight finish in Castle Avenue against Pembroke, Robbie scored the winning runs and an invaluable 10* to secure Merrion’s first major trophy since the early 1960s. The headline in the article by Karl Johnston in the Irish Times [5th July 1999] was
‘Stanton holds nerve for victory’ and the final comment by Johnston, after praising Dom Joyce for top scoring with 51, was ‘’but it took the nerve and experience of the long-serving Stanton to carry the day in an absorbing confrontation’. No better epitaph.