Essex County Cricket Club

Infobox cricket team
county = Essex County Cricket Club


oneday = Essex Eagles
secondteam =
coach = flagicon|England Paul Grayson
captain = flagicon|England Mark Pettini
odcaptain =
overseas = flagicon|RSA Andre Nel
flagicon|Pakistan Danish Kaneria
founded = 1876
ground = Chelmsford
capacity =
fcdebutvs = Leicestershire
fcdebutyr = 1895
fcdebutvenue = Leyton
title1 = Championship
title1wins = 6
title2 = Pro40
title2wins = 5
title3 = FP Trophy
title3wins = 3
title4 = Twenty20 Cup
title4wins = 0
website = [http://www.essexcricket.org.uk EssexCricket]

Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles and the current (2008) shirt sponsor is Shepherd Neame. The one day team colours this season are blue.

The club plays most of its home games at the County Cricket Ground, Chelmsford. It also plays some games at Lower Castle Park in Colchester, and at Garons Park in Southend. The club has formerly used other venues throughout the county including Ilford, Leyton Cricket Ground, Romford, and Billericay. Essex C.C.C. is presently captained by Mark Pettini, and has a very strong limited-overs team, which has won the National League in both 2005 and 2006, won the Friends Provident Trophy final in 2008, and reached the current Twenty20 Cup finals day.

Honours

* County Championship (6) - 1979, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1991, 1992:"Division Two" (1) - 2002
* Gillette/NatWest/C&G/Friends Provident Trophy (3) - 1985, 1997, 2008
* Sunday/Pro 40 League (5) - 1981, 1984, 1985, 2005, 2006:"Division Two" (1) - 2008
* Twenty20 Cup (0) -
* Benson & Hedges Cup (2) - 1979, 1998

econd XI honours

* Second XI Championship (1) - 1973; shared (0) -
* Second XI Trophy (0) -
* Minor Counties Championship (0) - ; shared (0) -

Records

Most first-class runs for Essex
Qualification - 20000 runs [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Records/England/Firstclass/Essex/Batting_Records/Most_Career_Runs.html]

Essex facts and feats

* Essex have provided four players for the England test team on three occasions. Graham Gooch, Derek Pringle,Neil Foster and John Childs v West Indies at The Oval in 1988 and twice against Australia in 1993 with Graham Gooch, Nasser Hussain, Mark Ilott and Peter Such.
* Percy Perrin's 343 is the only triple century for Essex but broke a less welcome record too. It is the highest score made by a man on the losing side in first class cricket. Essex piled up 597, thanks to Perrin before 'Derbyshire accomplished the most phenomenal performance ever recorded in First-Class cricket' in the words of Wisden. They replied with 548, dismissed Essex for 97 and won by nine wickets.
* Essex were the only team to bowl out Bradman's 1948 'Invincibles' in a day, at Southend. They famously conceded the little matter of 721 in the process.
* University games had traditionally seen County batsman improve their averages at the undergraduates expense but Cambridge batsmen John Dewes and Hubert Doggart both made double centuries in a record breaking stand of 429 against Essex in May 1949. Doggart had made history in 1948 by scoring 215* on his first class debut.

External sources

* [http://www.essexcricket.org.uk/ Essex CCC website]
* [http://www.sportatessex.co.uk/ Essex CCC official shop]

Further reading

* H S Altham, "A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914)", George Allen & Unwin, 1962
* Derek Birley, "A Social History of English Cricket", Aurum, 1999
* Rowland Bowen, "Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development", Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
* H T Waghorn, "The Dawn of Cricket", Electric Press, 1906
* Roy Webber, "The Playfair Book of Cricket Records", Playfair Books, 1951

* Playfair Cricket Annual – various editions
* Wisden Cricketers Almanack – various editions