It runs in the family for one of club cricket's lifelong stalwarts

LV= INSURANCE PRIDE OF CRICKET AWARDS 2022: Robin Mills has been rewarded for decades of service to Mistley Cricket Club both on and off the field

Appropriately, Robin Mills was in the process of collecting one lifetime achievement award when he received an email from Mistley Cricket Club's treasurer to tell him that he was in the running to pick up another.

He is the winner of the LV= Insurance Pride of Cricket Award for 2022.

It runs in the family: Mills' father was a long-serving secretary of the football club for whom Robin also played into his forties, so loyalty to amateur sport is in his blood.

"Without him, the club would be a lot harder to run," says one clubmate. "Hopefully he realises what he's been doing all these years has been worthwhile.

"Robin does everything around the club, basically. All the jobs that you don't know exist or that you don't want to do, Robin does."

At the moment, Mills' official title is club secretary, but the truth is that his contribution amounts to far more.

He is 60 now, still playing on his Saturdays: the first to arrive at Mistley's ground on New Road – laying out the rope and painting the lines – and among the last to leave after a few evening drinks.

"There's a few people who don't really understand what it takes," he says. "They turn up in April, play their cricket, go home in September and come back in April and don't realise that a club like we have here – the infrastructure and everything [that goes into keeping] it going.

"It's not just about locking the door and coming back in April; there's people who look after the place, security, making sure it's weatherproof, all sorts of stuff like that. Then you have all the admin out-of-season."

What a remarkable achievement for our very own Robin Mills! So proud and so well deserved! 🦢🏆🥇 https://t.co/SJRWcgbQXG

— Mistley Cricket Club (@MistleyCC) November 4, 2022

Mills is involved in all of that. The story goes that whenever teams are a player short, he's the man to ask for reinforcements. If you can't find your scorebook, he will dig one out. Those are minor points, though, within the wider context of his endless contributions.

Almost three decades ago, he captained a group of mostly teenagers to promotion into Division One of the Two Counties Cricket Championship. Since 1996, they have been near-ever-presents in that league.

He remembers that as one tangible highlight: "I'd been captain for about six years, and we'd taken a group of youngsters from 15 or 16 years old into young men, and we got back into Division One. The following year, we managed to stay up by the skin of our tails. Since then, Mistley has been a Division One club for all but two seasons, so we found a level. It's hard work sometimes maintaining that level, let alone pushing on."

But in the main, his favourite memories are less about results than camaraderie. That is why he tells The Cricketer he most looks forward to the après-match on a Saturday, sitting down in the club's bar to discuss individual successes and share stories. No one involved doesn't know him.

As well as playing, he coaches the junior setup, well aware of the importance of a production line to the lifeblood of any successful club.

"Sometimes in coaching, you see engagement with people and wide-eyed kids looking at you and absorbing, which is really good," he says.

"It's rewarding when you see them progress through the club and come into senior cricket and adult cricket. It's not about making stars; it's about making club cricketers. They will all find a level within the club and play first-team, second-team, third-team, Sunday. Or maybe they'll become an official or a scorer or something like that."

^{Mills is a legend of Mistley CC (Image: @MistleyCC)}

Mills has covered most of those positions and many more.

"It's just doing jobs that need to be done – someone has to do it," he adds. "It's nice to get recognition and nice to have people slap you on the back and say well done.

"It means a lot because I'm proud of what we've achieved as a club: the facilities we have as a club, we're a bigger club. I'd like to think I've been part of the growth of that."

Each year, Mistley hand out their clubman of the year award to someone different. But the reality is that it only happens that way because Mills wants it shared out, to celebrate the efforts of others.

"If we were just giving it out," says a colleague, "we'd give it to Robin. It's very difficult not to just give it to him every year."