Essex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Essex.
Founded in 1876, the club had minor county status until 1894 when it was promoted to first-class status pending its entry into the County Championship in 1895. Since then, the team has played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England.
Essex currently play all their home games at the County Cricket Ground, Chelmsford. The club has formerly used other venues throughout the county including Lower Castle Park in Colchester, Valentines Park in Ilford, Leyton Cricket Ground, the Gidea Park Sports Ground in Romford, and Garon Park and Southchurch Park, both in Southend.
The limited overs team has previously been known as the Essex Eagles but now play simply as Essex.
Contents
Honours
First XI honours
County Championship (8) – 1979, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1991, 1992, 2017, 2019
Division Two (2) – 2002, 2016
Sunday/Pro 40 League (5) – 1981, 1984, 1985, 2005, 2006
Division Two (1) – 2008
Refuge Assurance Cup (1) - 1989
Gillette/NatWest/C&G/Friends Provident Trophy (3) – 1985, 1997, 2008
Twenty20 Cup (1) - 2019
Benson & Hedges Cup (2) – 1979, 1998
Bob Willis Trophy (1) – 2020
Second XI honours
Second XI Championship (1) – 1973; shared (0) -
Second XI Trophy (0) –
Minor Counties Championship (0) – ; shared (0) -
Earliest cricket in Essex
It is almost certain that cricket reached Essex by the 16th century and that it developed during the 17th century with inter-parish matches being played. The first definite mention of cricket in connection with the county is a highly controversial match in 1724 between Chingford and Edwin Stead's XI, which is recorded in The Dawn of Cricket by H. T. Waghorn. The venue is unknown but, if it was at Chingford, it is also the earliest reference to cricket being played in Essex as well as by an Essex team. The game echoed an earlier one in 1718 as the Chingford team refused to play to a finish when Stead's team had the advantage. A court case followed and, as in 1718, it was ordered to be played out, presumably so that all wagers could be fulfilled. Lord Chief Justice Pratt presided over the case, and he ordered them to play it out on Dartford Brent, though it is not known if this was the original venue. The game was completed in 1726.
The earliest reference to Essex in a team name is dated July 1732, when a combined Essex & Hertfordshire team played against London. In July 1737, there was London v Essex at the Artillery Ground, London winning by 45 runs. In a return game at Ilford on 1 August 1737, Essex won by 7 runs. References are then occasional until 1785 when the Hornchurch Cricket Club became prominent. Hornchurch had a strong team that was arguably representative of Essex as a county, and the sources differ among themselves on that point as both Essex and Hornchurch were used as the team name. Essex played in important matches until 1794, after which the county abruptly disappeared from the records for a long time. An Essex club was formed to play some minor matches in 1860. They held an Annual General Meeting in 1861, but there are no further references until 1876.
Club history
Essex County Cricket Club was formed on 14 January 1876 at a meeting in the Shire Hall, Chelmsford. The new club had minor status initially, and played its inaugural first-class match on 14, 15 & 16 May 1894 against Leicestershire at Leyton. It was also Leicestershire's inaugural first-class match, and they won by 68 runs. Essex failed to win any of their inter-county matches that season.
Essex, Leicestershire, and Warwickshire joined the County Championship in 1895. In Essex's first match, James Burns scored 114 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston—the first century for Essex in first-class cricket. George Frederick Higgins scored their second century in the same match, putting on 205 with Burns for the fourth wicket. The club made a high score of 692 against Somerset with the veteran Bunny Lucas scoring 145, but the most notable feat was by Walter Mead who took 17/119 against Hampshire at Southampton.
Essex improved rapidly from 1895, so that by 1897 they were in the running for the Championship, only losing it when Surrey beat them at Leyton. They fell off after this despite beating a fine Australian team on a dubious pitch in 1899, never finishing higher than sixth between 1899 and 1932. Their batting on Leyton's excellent pitches was generally good with the "Essex Twins" of Perrin and McGahey and the sound and skilful Jack Russell, but the bowling depended too much on Mead, Buckenham and later Douglas and when available Louden.
With the decline of these players, Essex fell to some of their lowest levels ever during the late 1920s. Their bowlers conceded over 40 runs a wicket in 1928 – about the highest ever with uncovered pitches. The emergence of Jack O'Connor, Stan Nichols and when available, the amateur fast bowlers Ken Farnes and Hopper Read, though, made Essex during the 1930s a dangerous if inconsistent side. They finished as high as fourth in 1933, and owing to their pace bowling maintained almost as high a standard up to the outbreak of war. The batting, however, tended to depend too much upon O'Connor and a number of amateurs who were rarely available, and Essex lost too many games to break the North's stronghold on the Championship.
After World War II Essex fell off, taking their first wooden spoon in 1950. During this period it was left to Trevor Bailey to do all the pace bowling, and he was often unavailable due to Test calls, whilst spinner Peter Smith was frequently overbowled until he retired in 1951 – thus a strong batting line-up led by Bailey and Doug Insole could seldom win games. Not until 1957 did Essex come back into the top half of the table, but Bailey and Barry Knight never had support of sufficient class to permit them to reach the top of the table, even when Robin Hobbs became England's last successful leg-spinner late in the 1960s.
Essex Eagles
Since 1999 the club has fielded limited over sides known as the Essex Eagles. It is commonly held that this identity is – like the Northamptonshire ‘Steelbacks’ – based on the local army regiment. The local Essex Regiment, nicknamed the Pompadours due to their unique Rose Pompadour (maroon) facing colour used an Eagle as one of their emblems due to their capture of a Napoleonic Eagle in the Battle of Salamanca in 1812. However the clubs adoption of the Eagle name was, in part at least, for alliterative reasons.
The Eagle’s side has regularly changed colours, initially wearing predominantly a yellow kit, before later switching to blue and now wearing a mainly red shirt.
Home grounds
The club currently plays all its home games at Chelmsford – Colchester's cricket festival has been suspended since the 2017 season.
County Cricket Ground, Chelmsford
Lower Castle Park, Colchester
Players
Current squad
No. denotes the player's squad number, as worn on the back of their shirt.
‡ denotes players with international caps.
* denotes a player who has been awarded a county cap.
Essex players with international caps
Essex county cricketers who have during their career also represented their national team in Test cricket, One Day International cricket or Twenty20 International cricket.
Ireland
Curtis Campher