Counties hoping for a chink to appear in Essex’s armour during the opening skirmishes of the new season would have been heartened by the sight of Worcestershire — led by the gritty batting of Jake Libby and Ed Barnard — determinedly scrapping their way to a deserved draw at Chelmsford.
There were, however, several mitigating circumstances — including a pitch that started off benign and stayed that way throughout the four days. Though abnormally dry for this time of year because of a lack of March rain — Stuart Kerrison, the long-serving Essex head groundsman, could not remember one drier — it stubbornly refused to turn even for the prolific Simon Harmer, who toiled through 61.3 overs for his three for 126.
It was also horribly cold, though no sleet or snow fell as it did on other matches, especially on the third day when Essex ran into Libby and Barnard after initially reducing Worcestershire to 145 for six. The off spinner Harmer found it difficult to feel his fingers as the day wore on and the Libby-Barnard alliance grew in confidence as well as in hard figures on the scoreboard.
Libby’s epic 681-minute, 496-ball 180 not out, carrying his bat throughout Worcestershire’s reply of 475 to Essex’s first innings 490 for nine declared, was one of the longest first-class innings ever played. And it was his 244-run seventh-wicket partnership with Barnard, whose 128 was a maiden first-class hundred, that was chiefly responsible for bringing to an end Essex’s remarkable run of 11 red-ball victories at their home fortress.
That sequence began in September 2018 and Essex, of course, won the County Championship for the second time in three years in 2019, as well as lifting the Bob Willis Trophy in last summer’s Covid-shortened season. This year, their avowed intent is to do a double of championship and Willis Trophy; indeed Tom Westley, their captain, who made 213 in his first innings of the season, has said that his team’s aim is to try to win every competition.
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Given Worcestershire’s achievement in coming to Chelmsford and, ultimately, emerging with honours more than even – they also managed to dismiss Alastair Cook cheaply for a second time, before fists were bumped on the draw – keen eyes will now be on Essex from Thursday, when Durham visit them in the second round of games. Will Essex reassert themselves as clear championship favourites, and shrug off their opening draw as a mere blip?
Westley, for one, reacted to the disappointment of the opening draw by saying, not entirely in jest, that Essex would now just have to start a new winning streak at Chelmsford. Peter Siddle, the veteran Australian seamer who took 71 wickets at 18 runs apiece in 15 championship appearances as the overseas player in 2018 and 2019, returns to further strengthen the bowling attack in his third spell at the club. Dan Lawrence, now an England Test batsman after his winter breakthrough, said: “If we play to our potential we will be up there again this season. We have definitely created something here at Essex. We have the quality in batting and bowling, and in the depth of our squad, to push on again this year.”
Off the field, meanwhile, with former club legends such as Graham Gooch, Keith Fletcher and David Acfield still highly influential, Essex benefit from hard-nosed leadership and, under the head coach Anthony McGrath, they have a close-knit and highly motivated support staff. “Squad-wise, we are in a good position,” McGrath said. “We have a good balance. Younger guys who had a chance last year in the Bob Willis Trophy have improved their games as a result of that, and we feel we can have a good crack at every competition.”
In the new conference/divisional hybrid structure being trialled this summer, counties play ten games in three conferences in the race to qualify for what some are already dubbing “Super September”, when the top two teams from each conference will play off in a Division One consisting of four matches. The points from the matches between the two sides qualifying from the same conference will be carried forward into the divisional phase, with Divisions Two and Three being similarly contested for appropriate prize money. The winners of Division One will be crowned county champions.
