sports people

Graham Gooch

A former Cricketer, he captained Essex and England born 23rd July 1953 in Leytonstone. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation. He made his first class debut for Essex in 1973 and his England debut in 1975. In 1982 he was banned for 3 years for captaining an unofficial England side to South Africa. He scored a world record match total of 456 runs against India and became the only 4th batsman to finish an England season with an average of above 100 runs per innings. He retired from first class cricket as a player in 1997.

David Beckham

Professional Footballer, born 2nd May 1975 in Leytonstone. He played at the Peter May sports centre for the under 10 side and scored more than 100 goals. He played football for his school and Waltham Forest District and Essex county teams, and went on to play for Manchester United, Real Madrid and England. Beckham is the 5th most capped English player of all time. He has been runner up as the FIFA World player of the year 1999 and 2001, the only Englishman to score in three different world cups, and the 5th player in world cup history to score twice from direct free kicks.

Ken Farnes

A Cricketer, he was born 8th July 1911- 1941 in Leytonstone. He played in 15 tests from 1934 to 1939. At 19 he played his first, first class cricket for Essex in 1930. He was Wisden Cricketer of the year in 1939, and published an autobiography Tours and Tests in 1940.

Joanne Fenn

Middle distance runner, she was born 19th October 1974 in Leytonstone. She showed promise in her early athletics career having been the English Schools 300m hurdles Champion, but suffered some injuries, which halted her career. In 2002 she started doing the 800 metres and she is a member of the Woodford green & Essex ladies athletics club. She produced a personal best at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, which led to 7th place in the final.

Colin Kazim-Richards

A professional footballer, he was born 26th August 1989 in Leytonstone. He plays for Sheffield United, and went to school in Walthamstow, where he developed an interest in football and his passion continued into secondary school and he represented his school in inter borough-sporting events. He began his career at Bury after he joined the club at 15 progressing through the clubs youth team and centre of Excellence. Turkish national football team coach Faith Terim declared on 30th April 2007 that Colin would play for the national senior team.