List of Essex County Cricket Club grounds

The County Ground in Leyton (left) has hosted the most Essex matches, but it has not been used since 1977, and the majority of matches are now held at the similarly-named County Ground in Chelmsford (right).

Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 member clubs of the English County Championship, representing the historic county of Essex. The club was established on 14 January 1876 and has played first-class cricket since 1894,^[1] List A cricket since 1963^[2] and Twenty20 cricket since 2003.^[3][A] Unlike most professional sports, in which a team usually has a single fixed home ground, county cricket clubs have traditionally used different grounds in various towns and cities within the county for home matches, although the use of minor "out grounds" has diminished since the 1980s.^[4][5] Essex have played first class, List A, or Twenty20 matches at fourteen different grounds.

The club's debut home fixture in first-class cricket was played at the County Ground in Leyton against Leicestershire in 1894. This venue continued to be used regularly for over 80 years, and as of 2015 has still has hosted more of the county's first-class matches than any other ground. Essex played their final match at the venue in 1977, however, since when the similarly-named County Ground in Chelmsford has hosted the majority of first-class games. The ground in Leyton has continued to be used for matches in local competitions.^[6]

The club's first home List A fixture took place in 1965 against Derbyshire at the Old County Ground in Brentwood. This venue had been used since the 1920s for first-class matches, but only staged two List A matches, and its use was discontinued altogether in 1969. The County Ground in Chelmsford played host to the club's first home Twenty20 fixture in 2003, against Kent, and has since hosted every one of the county's home Twenty20 matches with the exception of a single game in 2014 which was played at Castle Park in Colchester.

Essex traditionally staged annual "cricket festivals" in the towns of Colchester, Ilford and Southend-on-Sea, which usually consisted of two first-class matches over the course of a week, and later incorporated one List A match following the introduction of that format. The Ilford event was abandoned following the 2002 season.^[7] The Southend festival moved from its traditional home at Southchurch Park to Garon Park in 2005,^[8] making the latter venue the county's only new home ground of the 21st century. Following the 2011 season, however, Essex discontinued the Southend festival altogether,^[9] leaving Castle Park in Colchester as the only venue regularly used by the county other than its main base in Chelmsford.

Grounds

Below is a complete list of grounds used by Essex County Cricket Club for first-class, List A and Twenty20 matches. Statistics are complete through to the end of the 2015 season. Only matches played by Essex CCC at the grounds are recorded in the table. Matches abandoned without any play occurring are not included.

Notes

A. ^ First-class cricket matches are designed to be contested over multiple days, with each team permitted two innings with no limit to the number of overs in an innings. List A matches are intended to be completed in a single day and restrict each team to a single innings of between 40 and 60 overs, depending on the specific competition. Twenty20 matches restrict each team to a single innings of 20 overs.

B. ^ Between 1886–1890 Cambridge University Past and Present played three first-class matches at Leyton and Oxford University Past and Present played one. In 1896 the Players played one first-class match at the ground. Only the first-class matches played at the ground by Essex are included in the totals.

C. ^ A number of first-class matches not involving Essex have been played at the County Ground. Middlesex staged a home game against Somerset in 1977. England A played a match against "The Rest" at the ground in 1996. In 1997 a First-Class Counties Select XI played a first-class match against the touring Pakistanis, and in 2000 New Zealand A and the touring West Indians played a first-class match at the venue. In 2007 the England Lions cricket team played the touring Indians. Only the first-class matches played at the ground by Essex are included in the total.

D. ^ The Essex Cricket Board played four List A matches at the County Ground between 2000 and 2003, including one match against Essex. The Essex Cricket Board is a separate organisation from Essex County Cricket Club and its matches are not included in the totals. The match between the Board team and Essex CCC is excluded as the Board team were officially the home team.

E. ^ The Unicorns played three List A matches at Garon Park between 2012–2013. Only the List A matches played at the ground by Essex are included in the totals.

References