HER sons are retired from competitive cricket, yet Robyn Powell still fronts up to Bendigo United’s first XI matches every week to support the team she fondly refers to as “my boys”.As the side’s scorer, Robyn meticulously notes every ball bowled, every run completed and every wicket taken by the BUCCs players who are almost like part of her extended family. Things have been this way for much of the past 30 years – since sons Grant and Richie started playing junior cricket for the Redbacks in the early 1980s and the team needed a scorer.Robyn took on the role and quickly became a regular fixture on the boundary line and behind the scenes at the club. Decades later, her summers continue to revolve around the sport.“I just love cricket, especially Test matches” the 60-year-old from Strathdale says. “I love the whole tradition and the battle that goes on out on the pitch.”These days, a typical Saturday for Robyn involves heading off early to catch grandson Zac in action for BUCCs in the Bendigo District Cricket Association’s under-17 division.Then it’s back home to prepare several loaves of sandwiches for the afternoon, which she spends at the scorer’s desk wherever the first XI team is scheduled to take the field.She is rarely home before 7pm, and even then must post the results on the internet before she can sit back and relax... unless there’s an evening cricket function to attend.But Robyn does much more for BUCCs than just keep track of play – she has been involved on the committee, compiling the club history and helping organise functions including the 150th anniversary, Hall of Fame and Team of the Century celebrations.Her contribution has been recognised with a Bendigo United life membership and she is the only woman to have received the honour.While club officials consider her a wonder, Robyn takes a much humbler view of her involvement.“It’s not what I do for BUCCs, it is what the club has done for me,” she says.“BUCCs have given me so much enjoyment over the last 30 years – I love the club and I like the people who are involved in it. It has just become a way of life for me.”BUCCs was founded in 1853 and is regarded as one of Australia’s oldest cricket clubs.Its alumni include several first class stars, including legendary all-rounder Harry Trott who captained Australia in the late 1800s and after whom the Redbacks’ home ground is named.Other international representatives include Billy Midwinter (the only cricketer to earn Test caps for both Australia and England), Jack Edwards, Harry Boyle, Jack Harry and more recently Craig White (who was born in the UK, raised in Bendigo and played for England).Robyn says when her family became involved with the club, it had been struggling but was just starting to get back on its feet.“They were great years,” she recalls. “The club had been struggling to form a committee until Leo Shanahan rallied the troops. David Pinniger came back in as president, David McCann was there, the late Maxine Crouch was secretary and my husband was looking after juniors. “The club had been in difficulty but they really started to push forward around then.“They were extremely successful years for juniors, and I can remember them winning all the premierships in every age group.”The crowning glory for the seniors came in 2000, when the club ended a 62-year drought by finally taking out the BDCA’s first XI title. “Seven or eight of those players had come through our juniors,” Robyn says of the now-famous premiership team that included son Richie as vice-captain.“That was my biggest highlight – our first A-grade premiership since 1938. I remember sitting in the scorebox and I could barely write because my hand was shaking so much the closer it got to the end of the game.”Cricket has always been a big part of Robyn’s life. She recalls going to the Queen Elizabeth Oval as a child with her dad, Jim Wright, who was one of the region’s leading umpires.“My favourite players were Doug Keck, Ron Slattery and Jock Turner and I can remember sitting there watching them play.”Nowadays, she has found herself sitting with husband Bruce at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, or at Lord’s or elsewhere in the world watching the game’s best international players.“My husband had a desire to see a Test match in every Test-playing nation in the world,” Robyn explains. “So we have been extremely fortunate to have been everywhere except Pakistan and Sri Lanka. “We’ve seen some places we would never have thought to go to, like India, which we loved.”The couple have attended Tests in Adelaide, Sydney and Perth and haven’t missed a Boxing Day battle at the MCG for close to 30 years.Robyn says she also loves watching local cricketers play, regardless of which side they represent, and nominates Heath Behrens and Peter Somerville (BUCCs), Ben DeAraugo (Strathdale-Maristians), Neil Williams and Jason Abbott (Eaglehawk) and Gavin Bowles (White Hills) among the Bendigo-based talent to have caught her eye.“When good batsmen bat, you sit there and you just don’t like to see them go out.”Cricket is not the only sport on the agenda in the Powell household.Throughout her life, Robyn has played netball and basketball and competed in athletics and cross country. She met Bruce through the White Hills Football Club, where he was on the playing list and her dad was club secretary.During winter, the couple enjoy watching one of their beloved Demons footy teams – either White Hills or Melbourne in the AFL – chase the Sherrin around the park.“Our whole lives revolve around sport,” Robyn says. “My kids always say I have seen more sport than Bruce McAvaney!”After winning five first XI premierships since taking out that breakthrough title in 2000, BUCCs is now looking to the future, introducing a new generation of young players into its senior team and building on its foundations off the cricket pitch.“David Bicknell is a fantastic president and we have a good young committee,” Robyn says.“We are a very well supported club when it comes to people pitching in and helping out. I can see the future for BUCCs is extremely bright – it is a great club.”And Robyn has no immediate plans to put away her scorer’s pencil case and call it a day. “Every year, Bruce says ‘this year will be your last, won’t it?’, and I just agree,” she laughs, adding that retirement from the role is definitely not on the cards just yet.“The fact my (youngest) son gave up playing cricket didn’t mean I had to give it up as well.”