By Dave Buxton
March 15 2003

In yet another new feature to pass away the winter and wet your appetites for cricket by bringing in the new season, Scimitars starts it’s monthly look at last season. First up, is April. Read on for the thrills and spills....

2002 Season Review - April

After the appalling year Essex CCC suffered in 2001, myself along with every other Essex fan couldn't wait for cricket in 2002 to start, so the bad memories could be exorcised.

The team needed to be re-built and added to with quality that was clearly lacking in 2001, after finishing bottom of division 1 of the County Championship and relegation straight back to division 2.

Re-building was needed following the departures of the batting mainstay Stuart Law to Lancashire and retirements of Peter Such and former captain Paul Prichard. With Stephen Peters (who never fulfilled this talent) moving to Worcestershire and promising bowler Ricky Anderson (a big loss) moving sticks to Northamptonshire, some new faces were needed at Chelmsford.

They arrived and were quality signings too. None better than Andy Flower, who was to replace Stuart Law as overseas player. You couldn't have asked for a better replacement, with one of the best batsman in the world and an average over 50 in Test cricket for the Zimbabwean speaks volumes. Other new faces had quality on them also, these being Aftab Habib, John Dakin, James Middlebrook, Joe Grant and the return of John Stephenson to captain the 2nd XI and play 1st team one-day cricket. Or so we thought anyway!....

The aim was quite clearly promotion in both leagues and the hope of a cup run and the squad now looked capable of achieving this.

So, the pre-season began with some excellent performances and saw the best pre-season results for some time. All the new players were settling in nicely and the season proper began with a crushing victory over Cambridge UCCE at Fenner's by 258 runs, which saw hundred's for Grayson, Robinson and Clinton. The new squad was already looking in good shape.

And so Wednesday 24th April came along and the season started for real, with the visit of Gloucestershire to Chelmsford in the first Championship match of the season. Essex didn't play in the first round and so needed a good start to 2002. Nasser Hussain and James Foster were still away with England in New Zealand, so the first team of the season lined up as follows: Robinson, Grayson, Clinton, Habib, Flower (+), Irani (*), Dakin, Cowan, Middlebrook, McGarry and Grant.

It was a game on paper we should have won and it started off like we would at a canter, when we reduced the visiting Glaws team to 145-7 in their 1st innings. But then came back images of 2001 that we fans thought had long gone. Yes, the ‘get the team 7 down and let them off the hook’ returned to haunt us, as a Mark Alleyne led recovery saw Gloucs reach 336-9 at stumps on day 1 and in total 379 all out, a total far too high than it should have been.

Still, a fantastic 131 (325 balls, 21 fours) for Darren Robinson and a debut 91 (138 balls, 9 fours and 3 sixes) from Andy Flower meant Essex finished level on first innings with 379. However, rain on day 3 scuppered any chance of a result and the west country visitors grinded out day 4 on 195-4 and so a sort of disappointing start, but a useful 11 points to get us started.

Then we entered the Benson & Hedges Cup group stage straight after the Gloucs match on Sunday 28th, with Sussex the visitors to Chelmsford.

No one really knew how our one-day form would go this season, but it looked as if it'd be the same way as seasons previous, as we lost the toss and capitulated in bowling favourable conditions to 18-4. John Stephenson's return lasted only 4 balls, while pinch-hitters Dakin and Napier and then Andy Flower were soon back in the pavilion also.

However, the pitch then got easier to bat on and led once again by Ronnie Irani (47), plus excellent contributions from Aftab Habib (46) and then Paul Grayson with an unbeaten 49 led the tail (Cowan hitting a big straight six in that) to a decent looking total of 206-9 from 50 overs.

The early wicket of young Ambrose bowled by Irani seemed to turn things back in our favour, but this match that ebbed and flowed both ways looked then to be heading Sussex's, as captain Chris Adams and experienced Dicky Montgomerie were cruising the south coast seasiders to a victory.

However, Ronnie changed bowling ends and this turned the match on it's head. His golden arm proceeded to take 4 wickets for next to no runs as Sussex slipped from 103-1 to 109-5. Captain Marvel had done it again with some brilliant seam bowling and when John Stephenson bowled excellently also and took a wicket, Sussex were 114-6 and in free-fall.

They progressed to 120-6 from 31 overs, before the rain came and no more play was possible. The Irani led recovery meant Essex won the match on Duckworth/Lewis by 20 runs, when 20 minutes before the players left the field it was Sussex who would have won.

After 5 consecutive days of cricket, that saw a dodgy start to the season, this comeback seemed to kick-start Essex's season and a turning point for me, even this early into events.

However, the team weren't able to build on it straight away, with the last match of the month against rivals Middlesex at Lord's on Tuesday 30th a complete washout and another chance of 2 points gone with the weather. May was eagerly anticipated....

Next part....May

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Date: 15/3/03

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