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Essex County Cricket Club can today announce that Jack Plom has signed a contract extension with the Club and immediately joined Surrey on loan for their final Bob Willis Trophy fixture.

The 21-year-old, who signed his first professional contract back in 2018, has penned a new deal until the end of the 2021 campaign and will head to The Kia Oval for Surrey’s final red-ball match of the year against Sussex, starting on Sunday 06 September.

Ahead of the loan move, Plom said: “I’m really pleased to sign a new deal with Essex and I’m grateful to the Club for showing faith in me.

“My playing time has been limited this year so going to Surrey is a great opportunity to get some cricket under my belt and show everyone what I can do.

“Hopefully I’m able to take full advantage of this and get some valuable experience before coming back to Chelmsford.”

The Eagles continue their Vitality Blast campaign with a home match against the Kent Spitfires, although the game is being staged at the neutral venue of The Kia Oval. That has been arranged to enable Sky TV to broadcast the match as part of their double-header bill which will also include the Surrey v Middlesex clash.

The Eagles were left still seeking their first win in the competition after Middlesex claimed victory by 11 runs at Lord’s on Thursday night.

Harmer’s View

Simon Harmer is urging the Eagles to find the winning thread and kick start their campaign in the white-ball format.

The skipper said: “There are still 6 games left and we’ve got to put this game behind us and look forward to Saturday’s fixture at the Oval.

“I think we did really well to restrict them to under 170 after the start they got off to. That little period from overs 10-18, we really bossed and did well to pick up so many wickets, although we maybe leaked a few at the death.

“The wicket was pretty good, but we just can’t put a full game together at the moment. We just need somebody to jump out of the pack and put their hand up and take it home for the team, which hasn’t really happened in the 4 games we’ve played so far.”

Squad News

The Eagles have no injury worries ahead of the match and have a 14-man squad to travel to London.

The Opposition

The Spitfires go into Saturday’s clash with their old adversaries having beaten Sussex Sharks on Thursday in a thriller at Hove.

England batsman Zak Crawley made an impressive 67 for the Spitfires and the Sharks were left chasing 196 for victory.

With just two deliveries to be bowled, they needed only two runs for victory but former Essex all-rounder Ravi Bopara gloved the first of those to the wicket-keeper then Sussex lost another wicket seeking to scramble a run that would have seen the match tied.

Crawley has now accumulated 152 runs for the Spitfires in the competition this year whilst Daniel Bell-Drummond has aggregated 147 runs.

The Spitfires are without the services of Sam Billings and Joe Denly who are both in England’s white-ball squads for the matches against Australia.

They will be led by stand-in skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond and have named a 14-man squad.

Kent Spitfires Squad

Daniel Bell-Drummond (C), Alex Blake, Jordan Cox (WK), Zak Crawley, Tim Groenewald, Callum Haggett, Fred Klaaasen, Heino Kuhn, Jack Leaning, Matt Millnes, Marcus O’Riordan, Imran Quyyum, Ollie Robinson, Grant Stewart.

Record Between The Sides

When the two sides last met in T20 cricket, The Eagles emerged triumphant with the 10 runs win at The Cloudfm County Ground on a night of high tension.

It was a match that the Eagles had to win to stand any chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the 2019 tournament and thanks to 64 from Cameron Delport and an unbeaten 47 from Ravi Bopara, the Eagles posted 189-6.

A fine innings of 89 by Zak Crawley threatened the Eagles hopes but only two other Spitfires batsmen managed double figures and in the last 5 overs, the Eagles attack grabbed the last 7 wickets for just 43 runs to book a place in the quarter-finals.

The defeat for the Spitfires meant elimination from the competition after they had led the South Division for much of the tournament before their form deserted them at the vital stage and they failed to win any of their last 7 games.

The Eagles are still looking to record their first victory in the Vitality Blast after their opening 2 matches provided them with a point from each.

The opening home game finished as a no result after heavy rain ended any attempt to chase down Middlesex’s 184-5.

Then on Sunday, a nail-biting conclusion to the match with Surrey at The Kia Oval ended in a tie after the Eagles defended a score of 143-6.

The hosts looked to be on course for victory but the final 2 deliveries of the match produced wickets with the Surrey innings closing on 143-8 and the points shared.

Hampshire are also seeking a first win of the Vitality Blast season. Following a no result in their opening match, they suffered defeat at Hove on Sunday where the Sussex Sharks prevailed with 1 ball to spare.

Walter’s View:

All-rounder Paul Walter continues to enjoy a rewarding season for Essex with his latest contribution with bat and ball playing a significant part in the tied match with Surrey.

After hitting an unbeaten 23 from 13 balls to raise the tempo during the closing stages of the Eagles innings, he removed the dangerous Jamie Smith and Laurie Evans in excellent figures of 2/13 from his 2 overs.

He admitted he was content with his input, saying: “It was good for myself to get runs at the end and a couple of wickets and I’m just trying to go from game to game at the moment and enjoy contributing.

“It was a game which ebbed and flowed quite a bit all the way through, but we knew in the field it was important for us to keep on taking wickets and thankfully that’s what happened.

“It wasn’t a bad performance by ourselves but there is still room for improvement in both the batting and bowling departments. The stand between Ryan ten Doeschate and Adam Wheater was important, as it meant we got to a total that we could look to defend.”

Squad News:

The Eagles have no injury worries ahead of Tuesday’s match and have named a 16-man squad.

The Opposition:

The visitors have been badly hit by COVID regulations, which has denied them the services of Rilee Rossouw and Kyle Abbott.

Liam Dawson continues to be sidelined having ruptured his achilles in a Bob Willis Trophy match with Middlesex, whilst James Vince remains unavailable as a precautionary measure until after the impending birth of his second child.

Hampshire Squad:

Sam Northeast (C), Brad Wheal, Tom Alsop, Ian Holland, James Fuller, Lewis McManus (WK), George Munsey, Felix Organ, Scott Currie, Ajeet Dale, Joe Weatherley, Mason Crane, Ryan Stevenson, Chris Wood.

Record Between The Sides:

In the 31 T20 clashes between the two sides, the honours are evenly shared with 12 wins each and 3 matches tied. The remaining games failed to provide a result.

The Eagles will be looking to avenge defeat in last year’s match at Chelmsford when Hampshire recorded victory by 7 wickets.

Simon Harmer’s side were dismissed for 133 in 16.4 overs with Tom Westley top-scoring with 44, before Hampshire eased to victory with James Vince striking an unbeaten 87.

There’s nothing better than a packed house at The Cloudfm County Ground for a night of T20 cricket and we hope we’ll soon be able to open the gates once again for spectators in the not too distant future.

In the meantime, the Club are dedicated to bringing Members and supporters enhanced coverage of the action from Chelmsford via our live multi-camera production.

The Bob Willis Trophy has seen the introduction of replays and match statistics for the on-field action but there have also been further developments to the matchday offering for the four Vitality Blast home games this season.

In addition to bringing streaming coverage from away fixtures, supporters can tune in for a full match experience which includes the introduction of our in-house commentary team. On the mic for every home game is professional television sports commentator Simon Ward, alongside Paul Hiscock who has been covering the Club since 1994.

They will be joined by Club legend, Graham Gooch throughout the competition plus other special guests from the Club.

The new viewing experience has already proved very popular with Eagles supporters with our opening match against Middlesex attracting a global audience of 56,000 unique viewers!

Coverage starts from 1:45pm for the upcoming match against Hampshire and Members are invited to join the action from 1pm for exclusive interviews and match analysis.

Members are urged to look out for their invite which will be emailed out ahead of the game.

The Eagles travel to The Kia Oval on Sunday to take on Surrey in the Vitality Blast, having been frustrated by the weather in their opening fixture of the season at against Middlesex on Thursday.

Rain at Chelmsford a few days ago prevented a positive outcome to the match with Middlesex. The visitors had posted 184-5 and the Eagles had just started their reply when rain swept across The Cloudfm County Ground and put paid to any further action. With no result declared, both teams had to settle for a point apiece.

Pick of the Eagles attack was New Zealander Matt Quinn who returned the creditable figures of 2/24 from his allotted 4 overs, whilst big-hitting South African Cameron Delport struck 2 powerful boundaries amongst the 4 deliveries he faced to post warning of his threat.

Surrey also figured in a no result game in their first match when rain brought a premature close with Sussex 116-5 after 15.2 overs in the clash at Hove.

Quinn’s View:

Fast bowler Matt Quinn believes that the Eagles were denied 2 points by the weather on Thursday.

He said: “It’s a shame because we were pretty confident that we would have been able to chase that total down.

“It is really frustrating when you have a limited season and the weather plays a big factor, but we have a point on the board and we’ll take it.”

On the Eagles performance with the ball in general, he highlighted a couple of areas for improvement.

“We didn’t hit the wicket as hard as we could have done. It (the wicket) was quite slow and stoppy – we should have turned to cutters a bit more in the middle stages.

“But I was pleased with how I bowled. You sit down and write plans and work out the way you want things to go and often it doesn’t go to plan and you have to resort to other things. But this afternoon things seemed to go nice.

“We will take it for the first game and hopefully I can carry on and take some more wickets for the Eagles.”

Squad News:

The Eagles have no injury worries ahead of Sunday’s match and have named a 14-man squad.

The Opposition:

Surrey’s squad has been decimated by England calls and injuries with 14 players unavailable for various reasons. Those include Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Jason Roy & Reece Topley are all involved in England’s forthcoming fixtures while Ollie Pope has been ruled out for up to 4 months with a dislocated left shoulder.

The 22-year-old suffered the injury when fielding during the fourth day of the England and Pakistan third Test match and will have surgery in the next few weeks.

Vitality Blast skipper and fast bowler Jade Dernbach is currently sidelined with a groin problem, seamers Jordan Clark (foot and ankle), Rikki Clarke (hip), Nick Kimber (knee), Morne Morkel (ankle) and Liam Plunkett (hamstring) are also ruled out while Conor McKerr’s season was ended by knee surgery earlier this month.

Surrey Squad:

Gareth Batty (C), Gus Atkinson, Scott Borthwick, Rory Burns, Matt Dunn, Laurie Evans, Ben Foakes (WK), Will Jacks, Daniel Moriarty, Ryan Patel, Jamie Smith, Mark Stoneman, James Taylor, Amar Virdi.

Record Between The Sides:

The first match that the Eagles contested in T20 cricket came against Surrey in 2003, when the teams met at Imber Court. Of the 22 players involved on that day only Ryan ten Doeschate, who was making his debut, is still playing. Now 40, he returned 2/27 from 4 overs and then, batting at number 10, scored 6 as the Eagles went down to a 44 runs defeat.

The teams have met on 28 occasions in T20 cricket of which Essex have won 17 contests and Surrey 10, whilst the weather forced a no result once.

No Eagles fan will forget the impression that Cameron Delport made when the Eagles entertained Surrey at Chelmsford last year. Rain reduced the match to a 15 overs per side affair but the swashbuckling South African, playing only his second match in the Eagles colours, peppered the boundaries in amazing onslaught as he struck 129 from 49 balls.

On his way, he set the fastest century of the season taking just 38 balls to reach three figures and by the time he was dismissed in the final over of the innings, he had thumped 14 sixes and 7 fours.

The Sunrisers will make their competitive debut on Saturday at The Cloudfm County Ground for the start of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.

The new women’s 50-over competition will be played between the eight newly formed regions who make up the women’s elite domestic structure.

The Sunrisers comprise of players from Essex, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Berkshire and Kent, and will be playing all three home games of the competition at Chelmsford, starting on Saturday (29 August) against Southern Vipers.

Essex Women’s side will be representing the team with Scarlett Hughes, Katie Midwood, Mady Villiers and Captain, Kelly Castle all featuring this season.

Watch the Sunrisers This Season

A live stream will be available for all Sunrisers matches played at The Cloudfm County Ground this season. Play begins at 10:30am on Saturday and will be available via the Essex Cricket Matchzone.

You can find out more on the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy – here.

Essex Eagles v Middlesex

Vitality Blast (South Group)

The Cloudfm County Ground, Thursday 27 August

Team News:

Essex Eagles: Varun Chopra, Cameron Delport, Tom Westley, Dan Lawrence, Ryan ten Doeschate, Adam Wheater (wk), Paul Walter, Simon Harmer (c), Shane Snater, Aaron Beard, Matt Quinn.

Middlesex: Steve Eskinazi, Max Holden, Martin Andersson, Nick Gubbins, Dan Lincoln, John Simpson (wk), James Harris, Miguel Cummins, Tom Helm, Nathan Sowter, Steven Finn (c).

Match Details:

Umpires:Chris Watts & Neil Bainton
Match Referee: Stephen Davis
Toss: Essex Eagles, who elected to field first
Result: Match Drawn

Match Highlights:

Matt Quinn’s reaction:

Match Report:

Rain proved to be the winner when Essex Eagles started the defence of the Vitality Blast crown against Middlesex at The Cloudfm County Ground.

After Middlesex had posted a challenging total of 184 for 5 on the back of an unbeaten century from Max Holden, the Eagles responded with 10 without loss from 9 balls before the weather intervened and sent the players from the field.

Persistent rain prevented the players from returning to do battle with both sides having to settle for a point.

The visitors launched their innings in spectacular style after being put in by Simon Harmer who then watched Steve Eskinazi smash three fours and a six in Aaron Beard’s opening over and had scored 24 of their 28 on the board before he despatched a delivery from Matt Quinn into the hands of Harmer in the covers.

Martin Andersson was run out by Cameron Delport’s direct throw from cover soon afterwards to pave the way for Holden and Nick Gubbins to put together the one substantial partnership of the innings.

It yielded 71 in just under nine overs with Holden playing the dominant role. The left-handed opener reached his 50 from 35 balls with the help of two sixes among his half dozen boundaries as he drove with power and confidence.

Gubbins was to contribute 23 before clipping Paul Walter to Dan Lawrence at square leg.

No-one was able to dislodge Holden however as he reached his first century in the Twenty20 format in the final over of the innings.

He did so with his ninth four on his way to 102 that also included three sixes. Those runs arrived from 60 deliveries and the one bowler to keep him in check was Matt Quinn.

The New Zealand paceman’s hostility and nagging accuracy saw him return figures of 2 for 24 from his four overs allocation. But his efforts were to prove unrewarded as the weather had the final say just as Delport was promising to make rapid inroads into Middlesex’s score.

The South African only faced four deliveries but looked in excellent nick as he despatched two boundaries with consummate ease.

One can only hope that he can resume in similar style when Essex Eagles continue their Vitality Blast campaign against Surrey at The Kia Oval on Sunday.

Our matchdays this season will be behind-closed-doors but Members and supporters can still be part of the action at The Cloudfm County Ground via the Essex Cricket Matchzone across all home and away fixtures.

Commentary will be brought to you by BBC Essex across the four days, alongside replays of the action and statistics.

We must stress that our games in 2020 are behind-closed-doors and spectators are not currently able to watch these games live in person at The Cloudfm County Ground.

Visit the Essex Cricket Matchzone now to enjoy live coverage of the game which is free to Members and supporters.

Simon Harmer spoke to Essex Cricket TV to look ahead to this week’s return of the Vitality Blast.

There is little time to regroup following Tuesday’s return from Arundel in the Bob Willis Trophy with the team heading into the opening game against Middlesex on Thursday afternoon at The Cloudfm County Ground.

Harmy is excited at the return of T20 cricket to the cricket schedule with 10 games taking place throughout September. He also took the opportunity to look back on last year’s success and how the team can build on that triumph in this year’s truncated 10-game competition.

You can watch the opening match in the Vitality Blast on Thursday from 2pm. Our new and improved multi-camera production is free to view and available via the Essex Cricket Matchzone – here.