Essex Call Time On Southend Festival

Essex Call Time On Southend Festival

Essex will not play at Southend in 2012.

Essex have confirmed that they will not be returning to play first-class or List A cricket at Southend next year following a meeting of their General Committee. The matches at Colchester will continue as planned.

A statement from the club announcing the decision said, “The Committee considered very robust and persuasive arguments in favour of continuing, but decided on balance that in the interest of its Members, the Club would be better served by staging the matches at Chelmsford next year.”

The decision marks the end of 105 years of cricket at Southend, and comes after much speculation in the local press about the viability of the festival, that last year included a Championship and a Clydesdale bank 40 match. Second XI, women’s and youth cricket will continue to be played at the ground in the coming year and, in time, it is possible that first team cricket may return, as chief executive David East explained,

“It is very sad that we will not be returning in 2012. The door has not been closed on the future of festival cricket in the south of the county and we remain fully supportive of the project to improve and grow the community facilities at Garon Park, and the fulfilment of these plans may open the door for future first-class cricket at the ground.”

All of this means that Essex are just the latest county to scale back its outground involvement over the past few years. This is mainly because the festivals, while proving popular with fans and occasionally helping the club’s results, as seen with Lancashire this year, are simply not supported by the majority of club members, who prefer the luxury of the county HQ, and are prohibitively expensive to organise. 

© Cricket World 2011