A plea has come from thousands of miles away for help in identifying some of the cricketers in this team photograph.

It shows the Burnham Wednesday cricket team in about 1938, and was sent to us by John Butcher, a former resident of the town who is now living in New Zealand.

Mr Butcher was born in Burnham in April 1929 and went to the Burnham County School, in Devonshire Road, until he was aged 14, when he served a seven-year apprenticeship at W King & Sons Boatbuilders, where Jim Burgess, Tom Marshall, Ted Cole and Stan Jenkins were some of shipwrights working there.

When his apprenticeship was completed, Mr Butcher went on to two years’ National Service in the RAF, after which he was in Essex Police for seven years, before migrating to New Zealand with his wife Norah (nee Head) and their two children, Neil and Julia.

He said: “My father, Stan Butcher, had a shoe repairer’s shop at 16 Station Road, Burnham, which was closed, like most other shops, on Wednesday afternoons.

“So a cricket team of shopkeepers and shop assistants was formed and they played on a ground near the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club – there was a large gas cylinder nearby.

“This photo, I believe, was taken in about 1938. My father is at the left-hand end of those seated. Of those standing at the back, I only know the names of (from left to right): third one, Mr Tunbridge (first name not known – father of Roy Tunbridge), next to him is schoolteacher Gordon Ambrose, then, I think, Mr Bigmore. I am hoping that some of your readers can fill in the rest.”

n If you can identify some of the Burnham Wednesday cricketers in this photograph, write to Standard Memories, Maldon and Burnham Standard, 43-44 North Hill, Colchester, CO1 1TZ, or e-mail mbsdistrict@nqe.com