Golden Generations – 1999 and 2024?

1999 was an important year for the club. This was the year when Greg Pearce, Paul Evans, and Rob McTaggart joined. Three of my closest school friends. The four of us were young, enthusiastic, and keen to break away from the usual path of colts to men’s league cricket that young cricketers take.

Greg and Paul had all the talent and would have easily had good careers as league cricketers at a decent level. I’m sure Taggs won’t mind me saying, but me and him were not going to be troubling any first and second teams at big clubs with our abilities. As Greg shared last week, he and Paul didn’t have the enthusiasm for everything that came along with playing league cricket. Anson with its ethos of fun and giving everyone a game was the perfect club for all of us despite our varying levels of ability. I don’t think any of us back then anticipated how the club would become central to our future lives, or how we would become central to the life of the club.

It was a real boon to the club to have Greg, Paul and Taggs join. A true golden generation. It wasn’t the only golden generation at the club, as the history shows there were many good periods with good players sticking around for many seasons. Plus, the stories from Alf and Monky show that past years were steeped in lore. They were, however, a welcome addition to the club when discussions about finding new players were becoming desperate.

Even before they joined there was still a lot of enthusiasm and love for the club from the older members and I don’t want to give the impression that the club was dying, but the future at that time looked tougher without the new recruits.

It wasn’t just having three new bodies to get on the field that was important. I think the addition of three young players of good character and personality gave a real impetus for the club and rejuvenated some of the individuals as well. I am sure Anson would have soldiered on somehow, but I am not sure it would have thrived in the way that it did for the following 20 years without them.

I think people like Ian Attridge, Monky and Dave Wright (Psycho) revelled in making younger acquaintances and Alf loved having a new audience to tell his stories to. Despite the age gaps between the newcomers and the current players our friendships were genuine, and as a Greg mentioned previously, most social occasions for all of us revolved around Anson.

Looking back, I could easily see a situation where eventually, without the introduction of Greg, Paul, and Taggs, someone like Ian may have stopped playing cricket to focus more on golf, or Lee Gilbert would have found a different club to benefit from his talent, or Psycho may have left to carry on following QPR and playing Microsoft Flight Sim.

In fact, Greg, Taggs, and Paul spent a lot of time with Psycho working his batting technique into something serviceable and were so close to getting him to an Anson 50 when previously I don’t think he had a score above 20. I don’t think you get this at many other clubs where the young incomers teach the older established players. At many other clubs Psycho would probably have been written off or invited to focus on non-playing roles such as umpiring. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have pursued cricket anywhere else, but he loved being part of Anson during this time. His bowling was a real lost cause though and no amount of coaching could help him here. He would come to nets every week and say, “I’m just going to throw them down to you if that’s ok.”

It was testament to Greg that he wasn’t at the club for long before being made captain. He jointly topped the wicket takers in his first season and was leading wicket taker every year but one up until 2012. Paul continues to amaze with bat and ball and his CV features many memorable individual performances. Taggs was the first of us to get to 300 caps and made many all-round contributions over 25 seasons, including several as captain.

Whilst Greg, Paul, and Taggs may have been the catalyst for this golden generation many other people at the club played an important part too. Hugh Henry had joined only a few years before these three, and Steve Redway played his first game not long after in 2000. Between these five and myself we have played 1,618 matches for Anson in just under 30 years, so I think the legacy of people joining in this era is quite extraordinary.

And of course, people like Alf, Ian, Monky, Lee, Pyscho, Micky Smalldon, and many others were all part of it too. The ‘many others’ bit might be a little misleading though because for quite a few seasons in the early 2000s our total number of members was relatively small. This was not too much of a problem because all of us were virtually always available and each week we more or less had the same eleven. In 2003 Taggs and Alf played all but one match in the season. The drops policy at the time was such that if you played on a Sunday and you were available the following week you were automatically selected. Sometimes you had to wait a couple of weeks to get back in (thankfully we have a fairer system now).

There were of course times where we could only get 10 players out and we were always happy to bring in new players as well. Taggs introduced David Towler (Young Towser), Greg brought George Collins to the club, Steve brought Mark (Nobby) Styles, and Ian gave us Neil (JPR) Jones. There were other young talents as well such Simon Rowe who spent 10 seasons at the club during this period.

This was the era of time matches, all day matches, Anson fund raising events, karaoke nights at Chinese China, Anson house parties, drinking in the pavilion until gone 11, winter nets at Chingford CC (which was essentially a weekly social event) and by the turn of the century the establishment of the Anson tours, which ran until 2008 (a topic that will surely have its own blog post). These things in and of themselves don’t necessarily indicate a golden era and maybe it’s just a fond reminiscence that might suggest that the concept is in my mind only and not palpable to anyone else. I think that for me, and maybe others, this was a time where we could much more easily and happily give so much commitment to club and make it a big part of our lives and that’s why it felt like a special time.

Looking at the present, Anson, as always, remains to this day a lot of fun and a club which is great to be part of. However, as match secretary, responsible for getting 11 players out each Sunday, the recent years have been a challenge and there have been fixtures we haven’t been able to fulfil. This doesn’t seem to be a dilemma unique to Anson and anecdotal feedback on social media suggests other clubs are in a similar situation. Survey data has shown that over the last 10 years that the number of participants in cricket has decreased in England, though there has been a recovery more recently.

That being said, I think there might be the glimpse of another golden generation round the corner for Anson. Players like Mitch Gilbert and Sam Brookes are both already establishing themselves as Anson legends in their early 20s and both have a huge love for the club.

Dave Bage has been an excellent addition and has settled in quickly, though is already vying for the title of unluckiest bowler at the club for some time. Thomas Ansell is a very good young player and being in his last years at school has the potential to be one of Anson’s greatest if he yearns for a long stint at the club. He is part of one of the many father and son combinations we’ve had at the club and his dad, Mark, is a more useful bowler than he realises, if only he would stop apologising to batsmen when he gets them out.

And then we have Luke Lovell, Ed Stannard and Billy Parnell. Three young lads who have joined the club and fit the Anson archetype well. They are a pleasure to play alongside and to watch carry out their craft. I hope that we see a lot more of these three over the years.

Off the field the club is doing well too. We still have regular socials, the beanos are still popular, the recent Butlins’ Big Weekend was a big success, and curry nights and impromptu pub catch ups have been well attended. The potential is all there.

Time is not yet up for the class of ‘99 but it’s no longer in the vanguard. We didn’t create the values that make the club so special, but we did buy into them and carry them forward. Now it is time for the younger guns to take the baton and continue to drive the club on. People like me, Lee, and others I am sure, will be there to help (we don’t do fun we just do admin) and play but the future is in the hands of Mitch and Sam et al. It’s their time now to be the catalyst for the next golden generation. Maybe one of them might be able help my batting become serviceable again.