2nd/3rd April 2011 Senior Premier Wednesbury
Team: Emran Hussain, Euan Liddle, Clive Carthy, Sarra Wang, Lucy Wang.
Going into this second weekend of matches Essex were facing a stiff challenge, they were holding up the rest of the division on 1 point scored although Yorkshire and Devon were in a similar position but on better sets and games averages. The good news for the team was that 3 of our four matches were against teams around us, so wins against these teams could be viewed as double points in our fight to stop relegation. We played, in order, Middlesex, Yorkshire, Berkshire and Devon. In years past Devon have been a bogey team for Essex so that match was looked on in trepidation.
We achieved the following results:-
Middlesex – 3-7
Yorkshire – 6-4
Berkshire – 6-4
Devon – 7-3
Three critical wins pulling us clear of the drop zone and leaving us in a clear fifth position on 7 points. Well done to the team for maintaining Premier status.
| Premier | |||||||
| County | P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS |
| Middlesex 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 42 | 28 | 12 |
| Sussex 1 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 46 | 24 | 10 |
| Derbyshire 1 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 42 | 28 | 10 |
| Berkshire 1 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 35 | 35 | 8 |
| Essex 1 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 33 | 37 | 7 |
| Cleveland | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 30 | 40 | 6 |
| Yorkshire 1 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 27 | 43 | 2 |
| Devonshire 1 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 25 | 45 | 1 |
2nd/3rd April 2011 Senior Division 1A – Draycott
Team: Martin Kubrt, Tony West, Steve Joslin, Michael Andrews, Ella Patel.
This was a tough weekend for the squad with 7 matches being played over two days. We were also in the unfortunate position of only being able to field one lady player. I should like to record my thanks to Ella Patel who turned out for a Senior team for the very first time and gave a very good account of herself. The team was further impacted when Ashley Stokes had to withdraw from the first team squad on the 29th March. This meant that Euan Liddle was moved into the first team, leaving the second team one player short. Michael Andrews stepped in at very short notice into what was a real baptism for him in a very tough division. Suffice to say that all matches were lost and unfortunately the team has been relegated. An interesting point to note is that all other teams taking part were their county first teams. Last season Essex 2nd team were in division 1B and in my view had we remained in that division the team we fielded would have survived the drop.
| Division 1A | |||||||
| County | P | W | D | L | F | A | PTS |
| Nottinghamshire | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 51 | 19 | 13 |
| Lincolnshire | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 44 | 26 | 11 |
| Lancashire | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 42 | 28 | 11 |
| South Yorkshire | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 37 | 33 | 8 |
| Bedfordshire | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 34 | 36 | 7 |
| Leicestershire 1 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 34 | 36 | 4 |
| Northumberland | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 21 | 48 | 2 |
| Essex 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 16 | 53 | 0 |
The Senior sub committee is meeting on the 20th April to review what arrangements should be recommended to Management committee for next season.
John Andrews
Essex Senior Match Secretary