Ryan Higgins Stand

By Fozzie
June 27 2017

Fozzie gives a detailed report of Essex and the Car Park leaving him and Mrs Fozzie feel hard done by. This is an excellent account of a primarily difficult day for Middlesex

MIDDLESEX v ESSEX, 26 JUNE 2017

Mrs Fozzie and I whizzed surprisingly quickly round the M25 for our debut visit to Chelmsford. We found the local multi-storey car park from directions on the Essex website, only noticing as we exited the building that it closes at 9.00 pm, with access to the lifts and ticket machines closing at 8.30. Ah, the difficulties associated with day-night cricket that we ordinarily don’t need to worry about…. There was already a decent-sized crowd in the ground before the start, though, perhaps surprisingly, there was no noticeable increase later on in the day, despite the good weather and Essex offering reduced admission prices for the final two sessions.

We sat in the upper tier of the Tom Pearce Stand - henceforth to be renamed the Ryan Higgins Stand when we realised that the advertising logo along the front of the stand simply said Higgins - where the Essex members were in chirpy voice in celebration of their team being top of the league and in anticipation of Mohammed Amir’s debut. “I’m proper made up for Fozzie” announced one diehard, which I thought was a very nice welcome to a visiting supporter until I realised that he was referring to James Foster’s century in the previous match.

The announcement of the teams caused rather more stir than usual, with James Franklin being omitted and the returning Mala taking his place as captain, for what I think must be his first Championship game in charge. For Essex, Tom Westley was selected for the first two days, with Chopra nominated as his substitute when he leaves to join the Lions. This caused a fair amount of debate; Westley is obviously very popular among the Essex supporters, but there was clearly a sense that the arrangement just didn’t feel right, and the feeling that leaving out Westley would simply have balanced out our loss of Robbo. All in all, it strengthened my feeling that Middlesex had made the right decision for Robbo, the team and the game in general. Almost as an aside, it turned out that we had won the toss and would bat. The conditions looked perfect, though some of the locals detected a tinge of green on the wicket.

The two Nicks opened against the belligerent Jamie Porter and then Amr. The crowd was hushed as it waited to see what Amir would deliver, and he didn’t disappoint the home fans. His fourth ball completely beat Gubbo, and the final ball was a low yorker which trapped him LBW. Next over Compo fenced at Porter and was caught behind, and after just three overs we were an ominous 2 for 2.

Mala joined Eski to a very generous reception after his exploits for England the previous day. Over the next half-hour I suspect he fondly looked back on the ease with which he had carted the South African all around the park, as Amir and Porter regularly beat the bat and further breakthroughs looked inevitable. At this point it was as hot in the open stands as it was torrid on the pitch, and we retreated into the shade. Eski was the first to settle, driving Porter for two 4s in an over, while Mala pulled Amir for 4 and then had an escape as the ball flew off the edge past the slips. But Amir came to the end of his spell and, as at Lord’s, after his early aggression Porter started to leak runs. Boundaries started to flow regularly; the opening bowlers were replaced by the decidedly second-string seamers Walter and Bopara, and after 90 minutes the off-spinner Simon Harmer came on to a big cheer after his match-winning 14 wickets against Warwickshire. But nothing could halt the smooth progress of Mala and Eski, who reached their century partnership just before “lunch” at 4 pm. A score of 106-2 at not far short of 4 an over marked a fine recovery, and if honours were fairly even the momentum was with the Middle.

Things continued smoothly after the break, with both batsmen reaching their half-centuries in consecutive balls, until at 126 Mala was out for 60, well caught by Foster standing up to Harmer. This brought in Paul Sterling, who watched on while Eski continued his assault on Porter. Sterlo took a few balls to settle in, then took a stride down the wicket to get off the mark with a 6 off Harmer into the pavilion, followed by a sweep for 4. Twenty runs had been added in just two overs, but Porter then got his revenge by having Eski caught at slip for 66. John Simpson didn’t last long, LBW to the returning Amir, and 158-6 looked decidedly worrying. Ryan Higgins joined Sterlo, who was taking the majority of the strike and truly excelling. Consecutive boundaries off Amir were followed by another effortless six off Harmer. The medium pacer Walter quietened things down for one over, but in his next Sterlo drove him for 4, pulled him high into the pavilion for 6 and then, as if to say “I can do better than that”, pulled him for another 6 out of the ground. By this time the 50 partnership had arrived, of which Higgo’s contribution was just 2 from 26 balls. No problems with that – he was making a valuable contribution just by staying with Sterlo. But he had clearly been intoxicated by Sterlo’s bravado, and immediately after cutting Harmer for 4 he danced down the wicket and lobbed a gentle skier. It was a waste, and it provoked a wickets cluster. Sterlo hit Harmer for yet another 6 before being caught at cover;

Ollie followed suit rather tamely just 2 balls later; and Murts also didn’t trouble the scorers to give Harmer another 5-wicket haul and his 4th wicket in just 3 overs. I can’t praise Paul Sterling too highly, though. When he first came into the Championship I think perhaps he suffered from being overly inhibited, probably from listening to all of us telling him he couldn’t play as he does in white ball cricket. And indeed, he didn’t in this innings – there were no high-risk unorthodox shots, no suggestion that he was anxious to score off every ball. But he was true to himself, backed himself to play attacking shots, and the result was spectacular – 77 off 50 balls, with eight 4s and five 6s. Let Sterling be Sterling! Anyway, the score was 230-9, and the prospect of a second bonus point seemed distant. But Toby and Finny held on against Harmer and Amir, then Toby launched a straight 6 and got 4 leg byes, and suddenly a bonus point was just another boundary away. Amir was replaced by Bopara, so the chances looked good – only for Finny to pop up a return catch off his first ball for an anti-climactic end. 246 off just 58 overs suggested a below-par score, though a high level of entertainment.

On our way into the ground we saw a notice saying that due to crowd misbehaviour CCTV had now been installed, and at this point Mrs Fozzie spotted what appeared to be a gibbet standing on scaffolding above the scoreboard. This seemed to be taking zero tolerance to new extremes… There isn’t too much to say about the Essex innings, partly because we had to leave with nearly 20 overs still to bowl to get back to the car park, at which point the score was 53-0 and precisely double that by the end. The lights were on, the pink ball didn’t appear to misbehave, and Cook got into his groove. There was one moment when everyone except the umpires went up for a catch behind from Browne off Murts, but that was it. We left at 8.15 in bright sunshine, rendering the lights unnecessary and the term “day-night cricket” open to question. The car park charge was £18, leaving us feeling that we, like our team, had been somewhat stung.