Lawrence Walsh – the legendary batsman/spinner aged as gracefully as he batted, with his leg break still being thrown up and spun a bit more than a succession of aggressive ECCL batsmen imagined as he remained a mainstay of the 1’s into his late 40’s. Lol sadly made the move into semi-retirement last season and whilst hopes remain that a switch to the Mid-Essex will rekindle his enthusiasm for pulling on the whites, as opposed to pulling his drives into the rough, the odd Sunday outing may be the limit of his participation. If anybody approaches his career record of 25,000+ runs and 1,200+ wickets, to paraphrase Fred Trueman after he reached 300 test wickets, ‘they’ll be bloody knackered’.

Andy Livett – Marv skippered the 2’s for the second half of the 2013 campaign, but the 51 year old founder member and opening bat has stepped down from that role and envisages a slot in the 3’s next season, his 33rd senior campaign for the club. That role will undoubtedly involve thrusting that front pad down the pitch and batting for a long time as he closes in on 20,000 runs. Depending on the skipper there may well be scope for a few overs of nagging seam, largely released from a two-step run up just as the batsmen raises his head to indicate that he’s ready to face. Injuries and motivation permitting, Marv was the 2nd man to reach 1,000 games for the club at Surrey Ovalites in the 2015 season, in all likelihood it will be 15 years before anybody else gets there.

Darren Ivory – Tiger stopped playing regular Saturday cricket in the early 2000’s, however with son Ted now starring in the under 11’s, D Ivor had a few outings last year in the Sunday 1’s and even one in the Saturday 1’s and it’s still possible that his trademark destructive middle order driving and pacy spin will be seen at grounds in the Mid-Essex area. Still banned from most minibus companies in the county, his 13,000+ runs place him 4th in the all-time list with his average of 33.65 being exceeded only by Wayne Hutcheson of players in the top 40 runscorers.

Scott Barwick (capt) – at his peak a hard hitting batsman (in the V at least, he couldn’t get the ball off the square on the leg side..) and outstanding seam bowler, the General’s last full season was in captaining the 2nd XI to the 2007 ECCL Div 2 title. Even then he was basically on one leg after his legendary (in Royal Mail claims circles) ‘hammy’ injury, however his inventive leadership got the best out of a young and enthusiastic bunch of players including future 1’s stars Shaddai Smith and Kane Messenger. The Big Cheese has played odd games since then, but none since 2011. Scott managed the Matchplay team to the 2013 final, a fitting end to a five year run with the same boys, with son Shane skippering the side. Few would rule out another comeback attempt and even fewer would bet on anybody beating his 102 wickets in a season in these days of limited over cricket, although if anybody has a serious tilt, it will probably be Shane!

Barry Bristow – Biff joined the club from Stratford Wesleyans via Surrey Ovalites and was a comforting presence at the top of the order (and at the tea table) for 268 appearances before emigrating to Brisbane, where he met up with the Goresbrook party on the recent Ashes tour. Not a man renowned for dogging it out on difficult tracks against quality pace bowling, Biff looked like a broken man after a 45 minute battle with a young Maurice Chambers at Leyton County in the early-2000’s, however no Goresbrook batsmen played him more bravely on that day, or moaned more about his injuries afterwards.

Richard Williams – still going strong(ish) in the 1’s past his 40th birthday and still churning out figures like his 9-6-7-1 return in the opening game, it must be strangely reassuring for 1st team followers of the past 15 years that Richie warming up still gives them an opportunity to nip for pint and a sandwich knowing that they will only miss an hour of nagging attritional seam bowling. The only difference from now to 2000 would be that Richie may well have had the keeper at least a couple of steps back from the stumps and (it being the Dagenham Post’s ‘bucaneering Yorkshireman’ era) he wouldn’t have had a nosebleed batting at 6. His fielding would still have been toilet however.

Lee Barwick – another Barwick whose last regular cricket was in the 2007 2nd XI championship season, Chas was a much underrated player who hit the bat hard with the ball and the ball hard with bat. Also occasionally known as the Stella Express, Chas was hands down the best session bowler in the club, his legendary bottle drinking exploits having little or no impact on his bowling, although as the overs passed his arm did get lower and lower, his last few balls of a spell usually resembling Daley Thompson throwing the discuss. Lee’s career figures of 618 wickets and 7,480 runs place him in the club’s top 10 in both categories and it will be a few years yet before anybody passes him for 4th in the bowling figures.

Steve Rooke – Jack dominated the early years of the club’s history as a tearaway fast bowler and middle order basher, racking up 13,000 runs and over 500 wickets. By 2000 he had stopped bowling, but was still effective as a lower order enforcer wielding his (ridiculously) heavy bat with malicious intent and keeping youngsters in check with judicious ear-based threats of violence. Goresbrook through and through, Steve lives in Rainham with Karen and a substantial cast of cats and is still a regular visitor to the club. Even into his 50’s Jack is still substantially fitter than 95% of the club and his sporting outlet these days is vets football, where he has represented England at over 50’s level. Making a comeback to 4th XI cricket in 2016.

Peter Ivory (wk) – the Cub was another who followed the well-trodden path from fatherhood to retirement, but for 377 appearances he was a livewire keeper and useful lower middle order bat for the 1st XI. Probably the best Goresbrook batsmen never to score 100, his top score of 99 at Ilford is one of the clubs better bittersweet stories, his superb knock remaining long in the memory of most of the people at Valentines Park on that day. Although when I asked Lawrence Walsh, who was umpiring when he was dismissed a run short of his century, to describe the dismissal. His response was ‘I think he was caught’.

Paul Atkins – the youngster of the team in 2000, at his peak Bev was a lively outswing bowler who took the new ball for the 1’s for a number of years. As the years (and the pies) took their toll, Bev continued to lead the attack for the 2’s and then the 3’s without compromising his run up or his use of the slower ball, but he always took wickets and despite his last full season being 2011, he trails only Richie and Izzy with 190 league wickets since we started recording stats on the play-cricket portal. Bev was capable of running through sides when the conditions were helpful, as witnessed by his club record 9 for 26 for the 2’s against Eastwood 2’s in 2002 and an 8 wicket demolition of Old Westcliffian 1’s later in our first Morrant season in 2000. Bev played a few games for the 4’s last season and Keith hopes that he will play more regularly this season, not least because he is by some distance the clubs best scorer/scoreboard operator.

Wayne Messenger – father of current 1’s star Kane and a virtual ever present on the sideline with a crate of Fosters, Wayne was a handy seam bowler in his playing days before a back injury started to restrict his on field activities. Wayne’s run-up was only exceeded by Michael Holding of bowlers of his era and although Holding glided in from the sight screen with the grace of a 400m runner, Wayne’s approach was more of your Sunday morning jogger, hands down by his sides, methodically tracking down the crease. As Wayne’s regular appearances started to dwindle due to injury, he became a prime candidate to be called up in the event of a late withdrawal, a situation that led him to be standing at gully to take one of the most remarkable catches in club history against the then all-powerful Leyton County. Star batsman Michael White slashed a wide ball at a tremendous rate of knots and had Wayne not managed to duck at the last minute and grab the ball one handed, it would undoubtedly have hospitalised him for weeks. Years later, it is clear where Kane gets his natural fielding instincts from…