WILLOW TALK AUGUST 2014 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ESSEX CRICKET SOCIETY - 165

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1 WILLOW TALK AUGUST 2014 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ESSEX CRICKET SOCIETY EDITORS COMMENTS It s about the half way mark in the season and once again I have to start off with a few remarks about progress so far in the county championship The season started off with a win against Derbyshire at Chelmsford.Although it did not look very promising after our first innings when Essex were all out for 94, Derbyshire however did not do a lot better and were all out for154, thanks once again to David Masters with 6 for 46, There were two excellent 2 nd innings with the highlight being a superb 181 from Alastair Cook, and Derby coming to within 55 of a winning total. A very absorbing match with the unusual feature of two Essex bowlers in the second Derby innings ending with exactly the same figures of 3 for 49, Graham Napier and Tyron Mills. Rain spoilt several of the following matches and there was also a series of injuries to almost all of our bowlers resulting in two temporary imports to help out. There was then that very poor batting performance against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl when facing a target of 256 in their two innings. I will leave any further comments to Paul. A second win came against Gloucestershire at the end of June but promotion looks as though it is going to be a hard task from hereon. Fortunately the T20 Blast is going well to date and sitting on top of the table at present looks good. Roy has almost completed the speakers for the coming winter programme and a list is detailed in this Willow Talk. As I have previously stated this is Roy s last year making these arrangements and I would like to thank him on behalf of the society for all his hard work in obtaining the excellent speakers that he has arranged. Also I would like to mention that some of the present committee is getting on in age and it would be good if some younger members would be prepared to help out. The Annual dinner was held in the pavilion at the county ground in late March and an excellent evening was enjoyed by all. Another draw, this time at Derby makes the promotion look even harder, However congratulations to Nick Browne who scored his maiden 1 st class century in the first innings of the match ending with 134 not out, and then went on to score an undefeated century in the second innings. With Hampshire s defeat to Middlesex on Friday, qualification for the quarter finals of the T20 Blast was further improved with the defeat of Kent at Colchester. Enclosed with this Willow Talk are renewal forms for next winter and voting slips for your player of the season. Cheques and voting slips can be posted to the treasurer, Tim Percival at Wellfields, Writtle, CM1 3 LF or handed in at the September meeting. In case anyone was absent from the last meeting a presentation was made to our chairman Paul, to Commemorate his chairing 100 meetings, Paul does a wonderful job in keeping the meeting lively and his opening comments about the speaker and his/her records, all from memory are brilliant. Geoff Bendall SPEAKERS FOR 2014/5 PR0GRAMME Sept Geraint Jones England and Kent Oct Brian Scovell Fleet Street sports journalist with the Daily Sketch, Daily Mail and founder of the insignificant seven. Nov Mathew Engel Author, ex Wisden Editor, has worked for the Guardian and The Financial Times. Dec Rickard Blakey Ex. England and Yorkshire cricketer, kept wicket for the county, Played 2 Tests during the tour of India in 1992/3 Jan Alan Oakman joined Sussex Cricket Club in April 1947and stayed for 21 years. Alan played in 2 Tests matches against Australia in 1956 the Third Test at Headingley and the Fourth Test at Old Trafford in which Jim Laker took his record 19 wickets. Alan took 5 catches in the leg trap. Feb Clive Paish A talk about the first class cricketers whose careers were cut short by World War 1 Mar Grahane Lloyde/John Parkin The six sixes ball mystery,- Final chapter?

2 (2) Although Greg used to bowl medium pace earlier in his career he says he now prefers to bowl off spin and would like to bowl earlier if possible because he gets more bounce with a newer ball. Also he would like to bat higher up the batting order in one day cricket. GREG SMITH The Essex all-rounder Greg Smith was our guest speaker for the February meeting. Greg was born in Johannesburg and played cricket, golf and rugby from a young age. He came to England in 2004 as a Kolpak player but England is now his home. He has recently got engaged to an English lady. Clive Rice gave him the opportunity to come and play cricket in England but has not been a big influence on his career. He played briefly for Griqualand West in South Africa before the states amalgamated, which greatly reduced his opportunities of breaking through into first class cricket. Greg played for Derbyshire second XI in 2004 and scored three centuries in successive matches before a vacancy came up in the first team. They were coached at the time by David Houghton who Greg thinks was the best coach he has played under. Greg thinks Michael Clarke captains by instinct while both Shane Warne and Graeme Smith think outside the box. Simon Katich is the best captain he has played under, whilst he regards Chris Rogers as his batting coach. It will be interesting with Ryan Ten Doeschate captaining the Essex one day side this season because he has a harder edge. Greg feels Essex have lots of good players but we are not winning trophies. Tymal Mills needs to bowl and gain more control but also his workload will need to be managed. Monty Panesar is also a good signing for Essex and will help improve our poor over rate. COLIN SHINDLER Our guest speaker for the March meeting Colin Shindler comes from Manchester and is an author, broadcaster and Affiliated Lecturer in History at Cambridge University. For twenty years he was a Bafta award winning television writer and producer being responsible for the series Lovejoy, starring Ian McShane and Phyllis Logan, and the motion picture Buster starring Phil Collins and Julie Walters for which he wrote the screenplay. In recent years he has written a series of books on British and American social history and written and presented documentaries for BBC Television and written plays for BBC Radio Four. He lectures in British and American cultural history with an emphasis on the impact of both sport and film on twentieth century society. One of Colin s current projects is writing a biography of Bob Barber the former Lancashire, Warwickshire and England opening batsman. Barber was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer and made his debut for Lancashire in the opening match of the 1954 season while still at Ruthin School. After Magdalene College, Cambridge, he rejoined Lancashire and was appointed captain when Cyril Washbrook, the first professional to skipper the county, retired at the end of the 1959 season. Barber was

3 (3) astonished at his treatment by the committee, which was composed of 30 or so individuals, many of them tired and emotional during selection meetings after a morning of gin and tonics, an acceptable lunchtime wine and a postprandial brandy and soda or three. Although they called him by his surname, which at least put him on a par with the professionals, they also instructed him to stay in a separate hotel from all the players to avoid "a problem". Lancashire duly finished the 1962 season second from bottom, losing 16 matches, after which Barber fled to Warwickshire, where, under MJK Smith and a refreshingly supportive committee, he blossomed into the attractive batsman and clever legbreak bowler we more readily remember. The privilege of amateur status had granted him no favours at all. As an amateur at Lancashire, Barber had been weighed down by the chains of office. At Edgbaston, he started to play with exactly the freedom of spirit that had theoretically been legislated out of existence: his Test place returned. With the abolition of technical amateur status, Barber flourished as an amateur in the very best sense of the word. Colin begun watching cricket in the late 1950s when the distinction between Amateur and Professional was about to be abolished. Crowds watching cricket after the end of World War II were good but between 1958 and 1962 these had dropped off dramatically. In 1958 it had been decided the wish to preserve in first-class cricket the leadership and general approach to the game traditionally associated with the amateur." Such status, it was considered, "was not obsolete but worth preserving, following a full MCC enquiry. Yet the recommendation to abolish came in November That summer there had been only four professionals in charge of county sides: Don Kenyon at Worcestershire, Vic Wilson at Yorkshire, Harold Stephenson at Somerset, and Keith Andrew at Northamptonshire. But the idea of the amateur's financial independence had largely disappeared, and the nominally amateur Trevor Bailey was able to retain the Essex captaincy only by virtue of being paid as the club secretary. Why the change of heart? "Shamateurism" of the kind practiced by Essex played its part but, even in those four years, there had been a significant shift in social attitudes in post-war Britain. Put simply, the era of social deference was over. The wave of consumer-spending encouraged by the Macmillan government; the arrival of the American-influenced ITV to break the BBC monopoly; the rising tide of immigration; and the increasing influence of grammar school graduates - all contributed to Britain's changing public face. And the 1963 season, the first to take place on a socially level playing field, was also the first to include a nationwide 65-over one-day knockout competition, itself a response to the strident calls for "brighter cricket" since the mid-1950s. The amateur's face no longer fitted. When county cricket restarted after the war in 1946, Northamptonshire named as their captain Peter Murray-Willis, who quit mid-season with a career batting average of ten and was perhaps best known for once abandoning his pursuit of the ball because his cap had blown off. His replacement, Arthur Childs-Clarke, frequently placed his business demands ahead of the cricket and captained the county to last place in the Championship in both his seasons in charge. Northamptonshire were not the only ones. In 1946, Lancashire appointed as captain Jack Fallows, a 38-year-old club cricketer who didn't bowl and ended up with 171 first-class runs at an average of eight. The war meant social attitudes were already changing, for there were plenty of professional cricketers who had fought the Germans and the Japanese, survived death marches and POW camps - and were not going to be intimidated by cricketing authorities. When Walter Hammond, who became an amateur in order to ascend to the England captaincy, was allowed to travel by car on the tour of Australia, this did not go down well with his team-mates, stuffed as they were on to a coach. Included in the books written by Colin are Manchester United ruined my life, Manchester City ruined my life, The Worst of Friends Malcolm Allison Joe Mercer and Manchester City and Fathers Sons and Football. We would like to thank Colin for providing us with a very entertaining evening to round off our season. Tim Percival

4 (4) st and 2 nd X1 PLAYER OF THE YEAR PRESENTATION This was done on behalf of the society by Tony Debenham at the county ground on the first day of the match against Gloucester Boundary Club Trips August 10 th a one day trip to Derbyshire for the One-Day cup match. The coach will depart from the Essex Cricket Ground at hrs. The cost is 30 per head to members of the Boundary Club Non-members are welcome at a surcharge of 4. August 14 th a trip to Swansea for the Championship match against Glamorgan this will ba a FOUR night stay from Thursday 14 th Aug. at the Best Western, Aberavon Beach Hotel at Port Talbot. The cost for four nights bed and breakfast is 350 per person 1 st X1 Graham R Napier October 9 th A trip to Ypres The Boundary Club in association with the Peter Edwards Museum and Library have arranged to lay a wreath at the Menin Gate in Ypres as an act of remembrance for the twelve Essex cricketers who lost their lives in the First World War. The cost is 165 per person and includes all exclusive travel and one nights Bed and Breakfast at either the Albion or Ambrosia Hotels which are both within five minutes walking distance of the Menin Gate. December 1 st to 5 th Three Countries Christmas Markets. Staying at the Best Western Walram Hotel, the cost for four nights dinner bed and breakfast is 399 per head. Visiting markets in Valkenburg, Holland. Liege, Belgium and Aachen Germany For more information on the above trips call Malcolm Rowley on or Malcolm@boundaryclub.fsbusiness 2 nd X1 Nick L J Browne

5 (5) 2014 UP TO JULY 25 TH Those who decry the early April start to the County Championship should note Essex s first match of the season is the only one to date to suffer no interruption whatsoever from the weather. Indeed, other counties started a week earlier and were blessed with similarly warm and sunny conditions. Only once in the last four seasons has the early climate been cold and wet. Recent Marches have been sensational! Derbyshire heralded the new Sunday starts by bowling Essex out for 94, the winter apparently having done nothing to ameliorate the hosts perennial problem. Masters and Napier crucially restricted the visitors lead to just 60 and Cook banished a few Australian gremlins with a magnificent second innings 181 in his side s 425. The Midlanders tail gave Essex a bit of a fright before a 53 run, 19 point victory was achieved. As early as the second match at the Oval, it became apparent Essex s seam bowling attack had injury problems. Day 1 was a wash out, but Essex could be satisfied with a total of 306, having been put in when the match limped into action. Surrey were dismissed for 237, Tymal Mills impressing with Cook scored another hundred on the final day, but the expected declaration never materialised as Essex settled for the draw, worth 5 points this season. 30 points from the opening 2 games seemed a fair return. Another first day wash out at Bristol and only 31.1 overs possible on day 2 made another draw inevitable. Essex did well to bowl Glos out for just 134, Masters bagging his second 6 wicket haul of the campaign. Ben Foakes made a sumptuous unbeaten 132 in a th wicket partnership with Foster, who made 91, as Essex declared overnight on 305 8, a lead of 171. But Tavare and Alex Gidman scored centuries of their own to steer the home side to safety on at the finish. Another 11 points meant Essex had 41 from 3 games. By now there was barely a quick bowler on the staff available for selection for the visit of Leicester to the County Ground in early May. Masters and Napier were injured. Topley had yet to return after suffering a stress fracture of the back on England performance squad duty in Oz in the winter. As an emergency measure, Oliver Newby and Tanveer Sikander were shoehorned in. Cook and Bopara, meanwhile, were with England. Pettini and Velani took their places. Pettini made 71 in Essex s 281 after winning the toss, but Leicester racked up 433, thanks to a Ned Eckersley century. Yet another bowler was injured, this time Mills. Monty Panesar sent down 50 overs, taking Greg Smith made 85 and Jaik Mickleburgh 67 as Essex gained a draw, closing on Kishan Velani showed a good temperament in steering Essex to safety as another 8 points took Essex to 49 for the season. After a rain affected win over Sri Lanka in a one day game at the County Ground, the action switched to the first T20 match at Lord s. Morgan and Malan seemed to have put Essex to the sword, but the returning Topley hit back strongly in the closing overs. A target of 181 was at least 25 fewer than had looked likely, and was reached with 7 balls to spare. Pettini carried his bat for a superb 95 and Bopara struck a volley of sixes to finish on 45 not out. This was a favourable start to the campaign at a ground whence Eseex have seldom returned in credit. New Zealander Jesse Ryder made his debut at Lord s and scored 45 on Championship debut at Worcester. Essex s beleaguered bowling resources did a pretty good job in bowling out Worcestershire for 291 and 120. In the latter innings Panesar took 5 23 and the highlyregarded newcomer Matt Salisbury 4 50, but the Essex batsmen had no answer to Pakistani mystery spinner Saeed Ajmal, who recorded match figures of as Essex lost by 72 runs, taking only 4 points from the match. There was another thrilling run chase in the second T20 match at the County Ground. Glamorgan piled up 189=6, Ryder 3 24, but Westley, Foakes, Foster and Ryder all made 30s and 40s and Smith scored a crucial and rapid 25 not out to secure victory. Back in the Championship at the end of May, rain completely scuppered the return game with Surrey at Chelmsford. Westley and Foakes made half centuries in another disappointing first innings total of 228, with spin yet again exposing a seemingly chronic Achilles heel in the batting, Gareth Batty claiming In 3 consecutive innings, Ajmal and Batty between them had taken 21 wickets for 162 at under 8

6 (6) apiece! Tom Moore was yet another debutant seamer to make a good impression, but only 16 overs were possible across the last 2 days and Surrey finished the game on Essex took 8 points to give them 61 points from 6 matches and fourth place in the table. Trips to the Ageas Bowl in T20 seldom prove successful and Essex were comfortably seen off yet again. They were put in to bat and struggled to 145 5, Foakes 43, in the face of superb bowling by South African, Kyle Abbott. Hampshire raced to their target with 16 balls and 8 wickets to spare. The start of June saw Reece Topley resume Championship action, but Panesar dropped for disciplinary reasons. Topley took 6 41 as Glamorgan were bowled out for 244. Essex made 280, Foster and Pettini making halfcenturies, and even a modest 36 run first innings lead owed much to a 9 th wicket stand of 63 between Foster and Topley. It was a splendid return to action for the young pace bowler, who took 4 more wickets in Glamorgan s second innings 250 to give him match figures of Tom Moore took 4 79 and bowled impressively. Even so, the weather had intervened once again, and the match ended in handshakes with Essex 28 2 needing 214 to win. They took 10 points to take them up to 71 points and maintain 4 th place. At last the new one day captain, Ryan ten Doeschate, returned from the IPL to take up his duties in the next T20 at the Oval. Surrey s looked barely adequate, and so it proved as Westley, Ryder and ten Doeschate himself combined to take Essex to victory with 7 balls to spare. If the match itself was ordinary, the food in the Oval press room was absolutely superb! The unrelenting schedule obliged Essex to pitch up at Canterbury for a midday Championship start the following day. Kent won a good toss and racked up 387, thanks to yet another century against Essex by Darren Stevens. Jesse Ryder s Gooch like medium pacers took Westley and Bopara compiled a patient partnership of 235 and it was only the pursuit of maximum batting points that cost Essex a substantial first innings lead. They made 440, Westley 116, Bopara, 162. Ryder again excelled with the ball, taking a further 5 56 to give him match figures of as Kent secured a draw on Essex played well in this game and were in with a chance of victory until well into the final afternoon. The draw earned them a healthy 13 points and promotion to 3 rd place in the table at the halfway stage of the season. Their tally of 84 points left them 34 points behind joint leaders Hants and Worcs. The T20 match at Canterbury the following day saw another instance of Essex chasing down a big total with an assurance unrivalled in their 11 previous seasons in this form of the game. Kent s would have been more but for Mills superb final 2 overs. He took 3 41 after a wayward start. Essex reached with an over to spare. Ryder blasted a dynamic 32 and Bopara and ten Doeschate shared a brilliant century partnership for the 4 th wicket, Ravi unbeaten on 81, Ryan 47. Essex were now joint top of the southern group. By now Essex were putting together a great run of T20 victories based on winning the toss and batting second. They followed up with an overwhelming defeat of Gloucestershire at the County Ground. They restricted Glos to and raced to with 7 balls to spare, Bopara smashing six sixes in an unbeaten 66 and Westley, relishing his new life at number 3, 55 not out, the pair putting on an unbroken 110. It was back to earth with a crash landing in Championship match 9 at the Ageas Bowl. The losing margin of 470 runs was the third highest runs margin in Championship history. Things didn t look too bad at close on day 1. Foster inserted and Hants were bowled out for 286 with Essex 55 2 overnight. Kyle Abbott dismantled Essex on day 2, all out for a dismal 121. Eschewing the follow on, Hants rattled up declared, the third wicket amassing 384, James Vince 240, Will Smith 151 not out. Essex, set 606 to win, were slaughtered once again for 135. They took a paltry 3 points from the game and dropped to 5 th. Essex recovered their poise with another 2 T20 victories in quick succession. Bottom of the table Middlesex made just at the County Ground, but almost surprised their opponents who were rescued single handedly by a barnstorming 33 not out from only 13 deliveries by Tim Phillips enabling his side to scramble home with 2 balls to spare on Visits to Taunton in this competition have been far more

7 (7) fruitful for Essex than matches at home against Somerset. After yet another successful toss, the home side were restricted to 150 by excellent bowling particularly in the closing overs. Bad light intervened during a tense finish, but Pettini, 60*, and Bopara, 33*, sealed victory on D/L with an unbroken partnership of wins in 8 meant Essex now topped the southern group. Match 10 in the Championship resulted in a resounding win for Essex, their first since the opening game of the season. Gloucestershire were in all sorts of trouble early on after being put in at the County Ground, but recovered from 56 6 to 224 all out, Topley 5 53, Masters Jesse Ryder at last came into his own scoring 133 as Essex rampaged their way to 541 with the help of Bopara, 147, Westley 71, Browne, 65, and Foster, 54. Glos narrowly avoided an innings defeat, but Essex recorded a handsome 10 wicket, 24 point victory. They now had 111 points in 5 th place. They kept the momentum going 2 days later at the County Ground with a comfortable T20 win over an improving Surrey. Tendo won yet another toss and Surrey were largely contained at Victory was never in doubt, Essex reaching in 18.3 overs, Pettini 42, ten Doeschate 40*, Westley 38. You can t beat the atmosphere and aesthetic pleasures of County Cricket at a good outground. Mid July featured action at two of the very best. I was fortunate enough to see the entire match at the splendid Queens Park, Chesterfield. The tree lined idyll, briefly interrupted by a glimpse of the most celebrated crooked spire, looked resplendent in a game blessed with mainly unbroken sunshine. Hordes of schoolchildren formed guards of honour at the start of each day s play and Ravi Bopara shook hands with all of them on his way to the middle. Derbyshire won the toss and made 275, Napier felling Durston when the hosts were well in the ascendant, and following up with That Essex snuck into a small lead before being dismissed for 277 was entirely due to a remarkable innings of 132 not out by Nick Browne. Not only was it his maiden century and a career best for the second game running, it was the highest score ever made by an Essex opener carrying his bat! The match was beautifully balanced, but skipper Wayne Madsen, normally the best of men, unaccountably batted on and on until eventually declaring after lunch on day 4 on Essex required 367 at 6 an over. Not on. Indeed they were quickly 19 3 and would have been 23 4 had Madsen held Browne on 12. Foster soon went but Derbys prospects of victory were scuppered by a brilliant unbeaten partnership of 193 between ten Doeschate and Browne. The former had yet to hit his straps in the Championship, but played some magnificent shots in his 104 not out. But it will always go down as Nick Browne s match. He reached his second hundred, again not out, whereupon the captains shook hands. Browne made 232 runs in the match without being dismissed, he batted for 10 hours 27 minutes and spent the entire match on the field of play! I asked him if he was tired. He replied that running with ten Doeschate was utterly exhausting. His parents were there to witness his phenomenal achievement. The Castle Park, Colchester, barely suffers by comparison. At the end of a superb week, Bopara made a particular point of saying how much he enjoys his cricket here on a pitch where spin comes into its own and how he hopes the Festival week will continue for years to come. For the first time, Essex played a T20 match at Colchester. A sell out crowd saw Essex put in to bat, stumble to 2 for 2, but recover magnificently to against Kent. Tom Westley s reputation in this form of the game is on the up and up, and his quite sublime 105 was full of exquisite strokeplay. Before this season, he d never had a chance up the order. Jesse Ryder took 5 27 as Kent were rolled over for 143, beaten by 66 runs. Essex were now assured of a quarter final tie. Could Essex extract revenge on Hampshire for that cataclysmic shellacking at the Ageas a month back? Sadly day 1 was a complete washout to the understandable dismay of the organisers. The pitch was the same as that used for the preceding T20 game and was conducive to a result being achieved in 3 days. Surprisingly to some, Hants elected to bat and were soon Adam Wheater returned to haunt his former colleagues with a sumptuous innings of 107 as his side recovered to 246 all out. Saj

8 (8) Mahmood made a belated seasonal debut and bowled well for his He was one of 10 bowlers used! A century partnership between Ryder, 69, and Bopara, 79, promised a substantial first innings lead, but Essex subsided from to 285 all out, a lead of only 36. Hants had seized the initiative closing on 83 1, one day to go, but collapsed ignominiously to 171 all out on the final morning. Ryder took the new ball in both innings and took 3 wickets in each innings. But the spinners now held sway, Greg Smith taking 4 46 in a superb spell. Could Essex make 133 for victory? They slumped to 29 4 against Hampshire s slow left arm spinners, Briggs and Dawson, and wickets fell regularly thereafter as they struggled to But Bopara was in his element playing the spin with a technique lacking in his colleagues, a veritable masterclass from the Big Bopper, and in Saj Mahmood he at last found a partner who seemed oblivious to the high pressure situation. Between them they struck a volley of boundaries to take Essex to a priceless 2 wicket victory. Bopara s unbeaten 48 was worth a century in anybody s language. The matches at Chesterfield and Colchester represented the county game at its brilliant best. Heaven forfend our great game should ever become the exclusive preserve of headquarters grounds. There followed 3 T20 games in 5 days. Essex made short work of a lamentable Glamorgan at Cardiff to guarantee a home quarter final. The Welshmen were put in and made The second wicket fell from the last ball of the innings. How can a side be one down and have only 150 odd on the board in the final over? Ryder, 51, and Pettini, 28, had 72 on the board by the end of the power play. Westley, 44, and Bopara, 32*, freewheeled Essex to the target with 10 balls to spare. But Cheltenham was a different story 2 days later. It s a ground where Essex either lose or get rained off. They lost the toss for a change. Ryder was rested but Velani on T20 debut made 34 most impressively. The innings stuttered in the middle overs, Bopara made 51 but was not at his scintillating best, and it was only down to a late flurry from ten Doeschate, batting absurdly low at 7, that Essex reached It still looked too many for Glos for much of their innings, but Chris Dent suddenly exploded into life during the last 6 overs to achieve an asking rate that had risen to 13 an over. It was only Essex s second defeat in 12 games but another followed against Hampshire at the County Ground. Again the toss was lost and a total of looked a good 20 short. Hants deployed 12 overs of spin and Essex were always losing wickets too quickly, mostly through catches near the boundary. Hants raced to a 5 wicket victory with 16 balls to spare. Bizarrely Tim Phillips didn t bowl until the 16 th over and immediately took a wicket. After a run of 8 straight wins, there was a feeling Essex had just lost their edge. Surely they would put things right in the final match at home to Sussex? It certainly looked that way when they scored their second highest ever score of 225 3, Westley yet again superb with an unbeaten 109 from 58 balls and Ryder a T20 best 75. But Luke Wright had other ideas. His magnificent 153 not out beat Graham Napier s previous highest ever score in domestic T20 and included 12 4s and 11 6s. Sussex s was the highest target reached by a side batting second. Despite ending with a hat trick of defeats, Essex nonetheless deservedly topped their group. They clearly prefer to bat second and they need to bowl better lines and lengths in the closing overs, something they were doing well earlier in the competition, if they re to go all the way. THE FIXTURE LIST Had I set my former Latin students the task of arranging the fixture list, I would have been dismayed had they come up with the ECB s version and instructed them to go away and do it properly. We have rushed our way through three quarters of the Championship with more than 2 months to go. Having played 12 matches in 15 weeks there is now only 1 match in a 7 week period. Even that game is not in this country and there is not a single home game in the entirety of the school summer holidays. On a piece of paper a quarter the size of A4, it took me 9 minutes to come up with a properly graduated format for the season. The current schedule is killing the quicker bowlers in particular and my schedule involves playing 2 matches in consecutive weeks followed by a week with no Championship match. This process continues throughout the current 25 week

9 (9) season. The situation is slightly complicated by the fact in any one round, one team can t play, given there are 9 teams in each division, but the only slight ramification is that the final 2 games would be separated by only a 2 day break in order to finish by the end of September. The T20 set up would not be affected, 14 matches, mainly on Fridays, quarter finals, finals day, exactly as it is now. From the word go, the ECB have made a farce of the longer one day format. Nobody wants 50 overs starting It s taken them 5 years to realise there need to be quarter finals and quite why they think it s essential for England s ODI team that we have a domestic 50 overs competition beats me. It won t make a scrap of difference. Here s a better idea. Commute the overbusy schedule by going back to the old NatWest format, a straight knockout competition, 5 rounds, and bring back the Minor Counties, for heaven s sake. In my fixture list, there is a perfect slot in each of the months May to September to accommodate one round per month. Simple. Until the ECB get involved! THE DETAIL APR w/c 6 th CC1 13 th CC2 20 th no CC game T th Essex sit this one out as the team who are the odd man out of 9 MAY w/c 4 th CC3 + T th no CC game Knockout round 1 + T th CC4 + T th CC5 + T20 5 JUNE w/c 1 st no CC game T th CC6 + T th CC7 + T nd no CC game Knockout round 2 + T th CC8 + T20 10 JULY w/c 6 th CC9 + T th no CC game Knockout quarter finals + T th CC10 + T th Essex sit this one out as the odd man out of 9 T20 14 AUG w/c 3 rd no CC game Knockout semifinals + T20 quarter finals 10 th CC11 17 th CC12 24 th no CC game T20 Finals Day 31 st CC13 SEPT w/c 7 th CC14 14 th no CC game Knockout Final 21 st CC15 27 th CC16 ENGLAND And then there s the international fixture list! Crikey, Moses! Okay, all is far from well with the English team. But first there was the back to back Ashes fiasco. Whoever came up with that idea needs shooting. Then we have 7 Tests squeezed into the summer. The pitch at Trent Bridge was a road. A no through road! Anderson and Broad between them bowled 117 overs in the match. 3 days later they pitch up at Lord s and bowl badly. Can you wonder? The longest respite between any 2 matches in the Indian series is 6 days. And this says nothing of the plethora of one day internationals in which our best bowlers tend to play. No wonder the South Africans have the best team in the world. They recently went 9 months without a game! But the whole lamentable charade is the inevitable outcome when the primary. secondary and tertiary consideration of the ICC is financial and the welfare of the players is an irrelevance. SPIN OFF Enough has been written about Alastair Cook s and England s current travails. But the lack of a credible spinner is an appalling indictment of the County game and results in more and more overs being added to the burden borne by Anderson and Broad. England s spin guru, Peter Such, was asked what the problem was with our spinners. Overs. They don t bowl enough overs. Until they do, we won t produce Test class spinners. For years I ve banged on about this. The solution is simple but requires strong action. A stipulated minimum number of overs of spin needs to be written into the regulations of County cricket. I would go for 30 in every 80, but certainly no fewer than 30 in each day s 96. The ramifications would be highly desirable. Pitches more conducive to spin would be prepared. Specialist spinners would be encouraged. They would be selected not just in high summer but throughout the season. At the moment sides frequently play a guy who can turn his arm over for a few overs in preference to a specialist. With 30 overs of spin in the rules, the emphasis would switch to a genuine spinner. England s batsmen, so often flummoxed by the likes of Saeed Ajmal, would now get far more practice against spin. And ironically no one would benefit more than the

10 (10) quicker bowlers themselves, some of whom, not least David Masters, have been asked to bowl an excessive burden of overs in recent seasons. And the day s play would end at 6.00 when it s supposed to! Vital to all this is that groundsmen should be relieved of their prevailing fear that pitches that turn will be subject to penalties. Ironically the original 25 point penalty at Southend in 1989 that cost Essex the title that year was as a result of pitches deliberately prepared at Trent Bridge for Nottinghamshire s seamers, but the effect has been to the detriment of spinners, to the point where they re an endangered species in the County Championship. Paul Newton LATEST MILESTONES (as at 26 July 2014) FIRST CLASS CRICKET For Essex 200 matches J S Foster 7000 runs R S Bopara 6000 runs M L Pettini 5000 runs A N Cook 5000 runs R N ten Doeschate 4000 runs T Westley 1000 runs B T Foakes 1000 runs G M Smith 350 wickets D D Masters 100 wickets R J W Topley 600 catches J S Foster 100 catches A N Cook 50 catches G R Napier 50 catches T J Phillips New record partnership against by all opponents 3 rd wkt 387 W R Smith & J H Vince for Hampshire at West End LIST A CRICKET (Limited overs excluding Twenty20) For Essex 3000 runs J S Foster TWENTY20 CRICKET For Essex 500 runs T Westley 50 wickets D D Masters All Twenty20 cricket 200 matches D D Masters 200 matches M L Pettini 2500 runs M L Pettini 500 runs T Westley 100 wickets R S Bopara New record partnerships against Essex 1 st wkt 19 D J Bell-Drummond & R W T Key for Kent at Canterbury 4 th wkt 59* L J Wright & M W Machan for Sussex at Chelmsford Brian Heald All first-class cricket 200 matches A N Cook 200 matches M S Panesar runs A N Cook (in 2013/14) runs J S Foster 9000 runs R S Bopara 4000 runs T Westley 1000 runs B T Foakes 350 wickets G R Napier 100 wickets R J W Topley 700 victims J S Foster 650 catches J S Foster 100 catches M L Pettini 50 catches J C Mickleburgh 50 catches T J Phillips