March 17th

Morning/Afternoon all

Today we had our first game of the tour at Carlton CC vs Hampshire. I wont go into too many details about the game because you can read the match report on the Essex website. We unfortunately lost but there are definitely some positives to be taken from the game. Pettini and Cook put on a nice partnership and looked in good touch (we already know Cooky is in great touch mind), and in general the batters shaped up nicely. On the bowling side it was the first game of the winter for all the bowlers, myself, Napes, Hoody, Comber and Pips so we were trying to blow some cobwebs out. Nets are great but they still feel very different compared to a match. We bowled pretty well but could not break the partnership between Irvine and Howell which proved to be the match winning one.

After the game we had a reception at the British high commission . We virtually went straight from the game so they boys were starving which made for an interesting night. When we arrived the boys smashed canapés all night to make up for the lack of a real dinner, and these tasty treats more than made up for it. We also had quite a few drinks and cleverly placed ourselves near the bar during the speeches. All the other teams on tour were also at the function so it was good to mingle with the other players and all in all made for a fun night.

I spent most of the night with Walks and Billy G. Billy and I were recalling our various stints in Perth. We both played for Bayswater Morley CC and had amazing winters, his last winter and mine two winters ago. They are great bunch of lads and good side, we would both love to go back so I don’t think they will have trouble finding overseas players in future. Walks was sharing stories with us from his career which is pretty amazing. Its great to have guys of his experience around especially when they are as helpful and cool as him. He knows I am still pretty upset with him though for being the target of his football related abuse on twitter, same goes for Scott Styris! But he redeemed himself a lot last night.

Chris