vs Surrey

[Stringbok]

Brilliant performance with contributions from the whole team. excellent bowling from all with Phillips showing again that he can be a useful player in this form of the game. even Tymal wasn't his usual wayward self. Then followed up by an almost perfect clinical run chase with only a maiden from Azahr raising any form of concern  With Napier and Smith not in the team and the emergence of Westley and Foakes ax T20 players we have a seriously strong squad.

can't say I enjoyed the atmosphere but I did know what to expect. Anyone who moans about drunken louts at Essex games needs to take a trip to the Oval where the dickhead ratio is considerably higher. Give credit to Essex at least they are trying to make the atmosphere family friendly and attract new fans with the family stand and the area in front of the pavilion. Plenty of infantile behaviour at Slurry but no sign of anyone under fifteen.

Anyway a victory over Sorry in any form of the game is always sweet.

[stickyboy]

can't say I enjoyed the atmosphere but I did know what to expect. Anyone who moans about drunken louts at Essex games needs to take a trip to the Oval where the dickhead ratio is considerably higher. Give credit to Essex at least they are trying to make the atmosphere family friendly and attract new fans with the family stand and the area in front of the pavilion. Plenty of infantile behaviour at Slurry but no sign of anyone under fifteen.

Anyway a victory over Sorry in any form of the game is always sweet.

As i said made Chelmsford look very tame in comparison! Crowd was very lively at times. Always love beating Surrey though

[DT]

Excellent win, played thoroughly well.

The atmosphere was just dreadful - fortunately I sat at the back of block 11 in The OCS Stand and had no trouble but it was a crowd of Made In Chelsea types and the noise was so loud you couldn't even hear the bat hit the ball!  Then as the night wore on people started chucking used pint glasses all over the place as people started making empty pint glass snakes and then I lost count how many people ran on the pitch at the end - I gave up counting at 5 and there were more - total morons who hopefully will get a life ban - not that they'd miss the cricket because they were barely watching anyway!  Have to say I don't know whether they were supporting Surrey or Essex but sorry there's no place for that in our sport!

[Diatribe]

Plenty of infantile behaviour at Slurry but no sign of anyone under fifteen.

Hardly surprising, under Bliar's 2003 Justice Act, they're handing out life sentences for these type of offences.

[Blocky]

We were in block 14.  And we were very noisy in proper support of our boys.  Great win.  Loved seeing KP trudge off.
What a waste of money.  Well played everyone..need to pouch those catches though lads.....

I'm gonna single out Tom Westley.  that's the 3rd time I've watched him play a really good knock when one was needed recently.  Well done flipflop boy....

[stickyboy]

was anyone in the Peter May stand, we were in Block 19 and could see one bloke looking well annoyed and the whole stand were giving him loads of stick. Was he done by the many beer snakes? I am sure when i went to the T20 England game there was big signs about no snakes so not sure whether the stewards were spose to intervene as we had people in our section who got caked in beer and looked slightly P*ssed off!

[eastsax]

The result apart, it sounds pretty dreadful. The only surprise is that those who should know better by now still subject themselves to the Friday night hooligan bash.

[IlfordEagle]

Great  team performance with our young bowlers doing particularly well, Mills looked the best he has ever done in T20, Salisbury commendably bowled straight & got his rewards, Phillips impressed especially his first 2 overs. Some excellent fielding notably Foakes' superb diving catch but a few lapses inc Ravi putting down 2 reasonable catches & Reece one although he immediately redeemed himself. The Ego got a mixed reception, but looked out of touch & got out to a sucker punch yet again.
Ryder started off like a train & generally we were well in control, Westley again batted with maturity & responsibility & deserves to stay in if he continues like this as long as somebody is pushing the score along at the other end. Tendo started slowly but after hitting a huge 6 got himself going, both runouts were unnecessary but apart from Azhar bowling a good maiden we were always in control. Sorry looked a collection of players rather than a team at times, only Roy & Wilson batted well (both tend to do very well against us in T20) but a good performance overall & always nice to beat Sorry.
I was in Block 19 & sadly a few mouthy & drunken louts sitting nearby using the F word liberally & lots of coming & going for drinks etc, no Stewards anywhere nearby, too many people just get up when they like & don't wait for overs to end whereas at Lords behaviour generally more civilised , Chelmsford is angelic by comparison to the Oval. Good amount of support for Essex arguably more than for Sorry & certainly more vocal.
We look a strong side so far in T20 but many difficult games to come in an open Group with Sussex & Somerset losing a couple already & Glamorgan looking a decent side (I was quite impressed with them the other Friday & thought we did brilliantly to beat them)