Southend Cricket Festival

After my Community Speed Watch training, I was delighted to support the Mayor at the Southend Cricket Festival at Garon Park in which the Middlesex Panthers defeated the Unicorns in a Yorkshire Bank 40 game.

The first Southend Cricket Festival started in 1906 at Southchurch Park and Chalkwell Park until the last festival in 2004. Since 2005, the Southend Cricket Festival has been staged at Garon Park.

In 2011, Essex County Cricket Club decided to scrap the Southend festival and play all their cricket in Chelmsford and Colchester.

For this reason, Southend Cricket Festival Ltd was formed and in 2012, secured two CB40 matches hosting  Unicorns games against Sussex Sharks and Kent Spitfires. This year, the Southend Cricket Festival hosted Unicorns games against  the Glamorgan Dragons and Middlesex Panthers.

Due to a re-organisation in English County Cricket, the Unicorns will be disbanded which puts the continuation of the Southend Cricket Festival in some jeopardy. Whilst we have been delighted to adopt the Unicorns at the last to Cricket Festivals and continue to have first class cricket played in Southend we do need to has Essex games return to Southend.

I am delighted that the organisers are working with Essex CCC representatives to bring a T20 game to Southend. You could help bring Essex CCC back to Southend by writing to the the Essex CCC committee urging that the club reconsiders their 2011 decision and help keep a piece of history in Southend alive.