Robert Cheminant - soccer player

The Cheminant family name appears often in Port Adelaide's sporting annals in the 1920s and 1930s. The name appears in reports on cricket, lacrosse, sailing and soccer. In these reports, only the surname is used, unless there is more than one player of that name. It could be that Bob (Robert) played all these, or that his brother Len, or maybe cousins, were also sporty. Bob was undoubtedly a talented sportsman from a young age, but his main game was soccer. At 15 he was selected for the national schoolboys' tour to New Zealand. It is in this uniform he appears in this studio photograph taken in 1927.

In 1928, Bob (aged 16) was the youngest league player in South Australia. This image was published in The News, Thursday 16 August, 1928, with an article about the soccer season so far that year. He is cited in reports as "Best Player" and "one to watch" over the next decade, including 1931, when he plays in Australia vs Britain at Hindmarsh Oval, and in 1936 , when he was up for selection again in the national team.

His father William was a fireman in the Port Adelaide Brigade, and appears in a 1915 group photograph held in the State Library of South Australia (image B37812). Bob and his brother Len grew up at the Fire Station, and in 1933, Bob marries Miss Avis Stringer.