Kings of 63: North pose outside the Stoneworkers’ Hall on the eve of their third Upton Park success in a row. Back row, from left – Ted Malpas (trainer), Barry Hill, Tony Breton, Brian Lucas, Graham Brehaut, Lloyd Duquemin (captain), Brian Mechem, Geoff Cox; front – John Mahy, Barry Mahy, Jim Eker, Derek Mechem and John Brehaut. (0731614)

AND so to the end of the Best XI road.

Leaving Northerners – to give them their full title   – until last was thought appropriate for the simple reason that they have the best and proudest senior playing record of all the GFA clubs.

But it’s also quite possible that they will again be our Upton Park Cup representatives at Springfield on 18 April, 102 years after they beat Caesareans in the very first CI inter-club final.

So many great players have donned the North shirt over the past 117 years that I would wager every penny of my savings to bet that nobody would have predicted the final 11 players chosen today by our eminent selection panel – ex-GFA president Alec Le Noury, the two former island coaches Harold Allen and Alan Le Prevost, and last but not least, ‘Mr Belgrave’ himself, Keith Parkyn.

What might surprise some readers is that not one of the current squad makes it into the team – a testament to the high level of standards the club has set itself over nearly 12 full decades.

The clever and versatile Darren Martin is on the bench and is the youngest of our selected squad, while it gives me great pleasure to see the island’s oldest living Muratti footballer – the great Ernie Sauvage, now 90 years  young and still trim enough to fill the right-back’s shirt today – make the starting team.

The little matter of 28 Priaulx championships, 15 Uptons and one shared, 23 Jeremies, two Wheways and two FA Cups, confirm North’s status as Guernsey’s consistently  best club.

And for that record alone their loyal support can justifiably crow as much as the old cockerel on their emblem.