On Monday, against Norfolk Richard Barham and Chris Gardiner were 'hooked' with a call when they were break point up at 5 all in the third set and although losing that game, held the next which meant they would have won 7-5 in the third and the first day's result would have been a 5-4 victory and not a 5-4 loss.
On the second day against Sussex we were beaten, although had we had one of our missing players, things would have been completely different.
On Wednesday against South Wales, Tom Higgins and Ben Pritchard led 5-2 in the third against the third pair of Evans and Jones and had they been able to close out, this again would have been another 5-4 victory for us.
On Thursday I had asked Vince Ranson if he would come down and play, which he dutifully obliged and was unlucky not to win the first round with Matt Coombs and we also lost three 3 setters against a team that had three very good juniors whose coaches did allow them to play!
Everything was then academic for the last day against Buckinghamshire although there was a very good performance from 16 year old David Wright who came in and played with (and under the guidance of) Ben Higgins). Jon Lee also travelled up from Thorpe Bay to make his debut for the County at age 35 and with Chris Gardiner, managed to beat the Bucks third pair and thus give us a win in two rounds.
Generally, I know every County has its problems in getting its best players to County Week and Essex are determined to rebuild. My sincerest thanks go to all the supporters who came to Felixtowe. There is one ray of sunshine - For the Winter Singles we are in Group II and if we are able to get a reasonably strong team we should certainly stay and even have a chance of being promoted to Group I.
Jamie Willson - Men's Captain