S&B In The News - Southport Visiter 25-06-2026

Paul Edwards writes

Southport and Birkdale Sports Club could soon be going up in the world – thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Liverpool FC’s late chief-executive, Peter Robinson.

In addition to being one of the driving forces behind his football club’s domination of the English game in the 1970s and 80s, Robinson was also a regular at Trafalgar Road and following his death in 2022, his executors informed the club that his will included a provision so that a second tier with a balcony could be built on top of the current pavilion.

Over three years of research followed, during which S&B’s former chairman, Tony Elwood, visited several clubs, including Monton, Blackpool and Neston, to see and discuss their pavilions and redevelopments. An innovative design by Manchester-based The Friday Project received planning approval last year and, following very cordial discussions with Robinson’s executors, S&B hope that building work can begin in early September and be completed in time for Christmas.

Yet while they are excited at the prospect of having a lounge and balcony in which current members can sit and watch the cricket while there is a function taking place on the ground floor, club officials remain overwhelmed by the philanthropy of a man who was content to sit quietly and watch his second-favourite sports team play cricket. Indeed, even when he was ill, Robinson would ask for someone to talk him through Saturday’s games on the telephone.

“Peter was a greatly respected and much-valued member of our club,” said S&B’s current chair, David Salt. “He used to come down each Saturday to watch the cricket but he wanted somewhere inside the club from where he could have an uninterrupted view of games when there was a function on. His tremendous generosity will ensure that members can do that.

“We want to be the number one sports club in the north-west and I think this will be a great help as we try to achieve that goal. The facilities will include a ground-floor entrance and a lift going up to the members’ bar and a balcony that will look out over the ground. It should be fabulous.

“We’ve got through planning, we’ve talked to the architect and I hope the tender will be going out soon. We’ll be starting work in the week after the beer festival and the aim is that it should be a 14-week build. But I’d also like to pay tribute to the former officers, Tony Elwood and Lindsey Bridge, both of whom were great driving forces in this project.”