I am glad that at last, 'an outsider' has commented upon the absurdity of the over the top security at the ground for 4 day matches . At the Oval earlier in the season for the one day game - with twice the attendance of most days at Chelmsford- there were no bag searches and warm smiles of welcome for our members entering their pavilion with only a cursory glance at our membership lanyards. They seemed to have one tenth of the stewards we have and no outside security wallahs ( How much do we have to pay for these bored and not terribly thorough factotums?). The same is true elsewhere I have been for away games e.g Radlett, Derby, Worcester, Northants et al.
Whenever I raise the matter with Bowden I am told all this is due to Safety in Sports grounds legislation. He doesn't say why it seems to apply to us but not the Oval for instance.
My son, a member for ten years and well known to most stewards, turned up for his first attendance against Kent the other week and his membership card would not 'click' at the entrance. He was asked in no uncertain terms if he had paid his membership and although he showed the acknowledgement and receipt on his mobile phone, he was literally frog marched along to the reception where the club acknowledged their error ( but did not apologise).His accompaniment stayed by his side while the issue was dealt with. My son is very much in the age group that we should be encouraging not being treated like this.
The whole set up is a self evident farce and I am sure a main reason for not having out ground cricket is that Bowden couldn't operate his silly systems. End of rant.
