It’s unlikely that many of us will witness a Diamond Jubilee event again so enjoy the below reflections …
Team pictures from 1951 (nearest to 1952), 1977 and 2002 are shown in Photo Galleries and below left. Whilst it’s doubtful that anyone survives the 1951 team (although we would be delighted to be proven wrong), two players from the Silver Jubilee 1977 team are not only still living (just) but playing in the Stiffs this Sunday.
David J Merriday and El Presidente are pictured in 1977 at Colco (Colchester Co-op) in King Harold Road and whilst both team and ground are long gone the image remains when baggy trousers, high waistbands and a couple of lagers in the Star (we had four years to wait for a bar ... and toilets) before moving onto the Affair Club were the norm. Happy days.
Only five players remain from the 
Golden Jubilee Chairman’s teams of 2002 – Nick Murray, Woody, Keith Steel & Richard Polley. The Stiffs do better with six players still going strong: Asbo Warner, Tom, Richard Polley, Neil Brinded, Nick Murray and DJM again.
This year we celebrated Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee in style with a match and quiz on the Bank Holiday Monday. In the absence of any team from the village, EAG players split into two and enjoyed a fun yet competitive fixture. Afterwards a Jubilee themed quiz night courtesy of Tom kept everyone entertained and lubricated with some great Golden Newt real ale from PJs bar.
Numbers were bolstered later by locals including a party who had come straight from the village’s ‘DJs From The Seventies’ lookalike competition’ including a Dave Lee Travis from the Walk still smarting from coming second to Woo Gary Davis from Porters Cottages. The evening culminated in the singing of the National Anthem and Jerusalem which have been captured for posterity and will be uploaded when we know how to work it.
In Jubilee tradition the following awards were made …
- GM (Groucho Marx) & Bar. Dick Warner won the Groucho Look-a-Like contest – a surprise to many who thought he had simply been wearing a joke glasses, nose & moustache combo for the last twenty years.
- DSOW (Dress Sense of Wheelbarrow). Tony Lee for clothes & transport.
- Order of the Ginger Nutt. Mark Goodall who takes over from Richard Nunn (who has been down-graded to auburn).
- Official Village Idiot. Paul Spacey whose only contribution to the quiz was to suggest that a picture of George W Bush was in fact Bill Clinton.
- Order of the Johnson (OJ) A unique event … A Johnson, bowled M Johnson (brother), caught P Johnson (father). Surely a club first?
The gallery also includes a peek into PJs bar which not only shows the extent of the decorations but also, just like Her Majesty’s Commonwealth, the breadth of age, gender, ethnicity and intellect that a modern cricket club like EAGCC now possesses.