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No one was more relieved than Essex opener Nick Browne when the ECB announced that the delayed 2020 season would include a mix of red and white-ball cricket.

One of the alternative plans for the mini-season that begins on August 1 was for solely one-day matches, and Browne’s more patient approach has not been seen in the 50-over format for three years or in the helter-skelter of T20 since 2016.

He admits: “Yes, I was relieved. I really thought they were just going to do T20s and 50 overs. I thought on the financial side it probably made sense. But obviously I love four-day cricket, I love playing it, so I’m happy.

“But I would have tried to play both [white-ball] formats. You’ve got to try and adapt, haven’t you, to get some kind of cricket in. Now I’ve got these five [red-ball] games to play and then I’ll try and get into the T20 team!

“There might be an opportunity this year, you never know. If Dan Lawrence is still away with England; we don’t know if Cameron Delport will make it over from South Africa, and we’ve obviously lost Ravi, so that’s three batting spots available!”

The 29-year-old left-hander, back in training for the past fortnight, has not visited the middle since Essex clinched the Specsavers County Championship title at Taunton last September. “It’s the longest since I was probably 15 that I haven’t picked up a bat,” he says.

“It felt a bit strange putting the gear on when we went back, but once you’ve faced a couple of balls you’re back into it. It’s amazing how quickly you pick it up again, how quickly your eyes pick up the ball and your feet move to it.

“Mind you, it takes me a bit longer than some of the more talented boys, I must say. Someone like Adam Wheater, Dan Lawrence or Tom Westley can just walk into a net and hit everything out of the middle straight away.”

Essex were midway through their pre-season training camp in Abu Dhabi when the coronavirus pandemic struck, with Browne saying: “To have put so much work in and then it doesn’t happen, that’s the frustrating bit.”

“You’ve trained really hard on your fitness for three or four months after Christmas and you’re good to go. Also, for us, we’d just won the title, we were on a roll and wanted to make hay while the sun’s shining, keep winning competitions. We felt like we could have won it again this year. But, yeah, it’s one of those things. The boys are really excited to get going.”

With a maximum of a dozen red-ball innings available, Browne has had to readjust his season’s target. He said: “Over the years my goal has always been to score 1,000 runs. It’ll be tough to do that this year! Obviously, you want to score hundreds and maybe something in the 300-400 range would be nice.

“What we’ve done quite well at Chelmsford the last few years is, because they’ve been results wickets, us batters have tried to pride ourselves on out-scoring the opposition and not looking too much at your own average. It’s more about what the average was for the game, if that makes sense.

“Anthony McGrath [the Head Coach] has done really well with instilling that into us. Rather than worrying, ‘Oh, I’m only averaging 20 at home’, try and see that you’re doing well compared to the average of the other top six or the opposition top six. It’s a better way of looking at it and puts a positive spin on things. I think if I can look at an average above 40 then I’d probably take that.”

Our Cult Heroes series moves back to the pre-Second World War period and a player who was one of the countries great fast bowlers during the 1930s.

He was also featured a number of times for Cambridge University and the MCC in a career, which was brought to an end too soon. Today (Wednesday 8 July) marks his birthday and 81 years since his last season playing for the Club.

This series is supported by Allen Ford and we thank them for their continued support.

Essex Career Stats (1930-1939)
Debut: 28 June 1930 v Gloucestershire (County Championship)
Appearances: 79
Wickets: 367
Best Figures:
5 Wicket in an Innings: 28
10 Wickets in a Match: 10

Recognised as one of England’s finest fast bowlers, the life of Kenneth Farnes was tragically cut short at the age of 30 during the Second World War, his plane crashing in Oxfordshire while on a night flying practice mission.

He was born in July 1911 in Leytonstone and played in 15 Test matches from 1934 to 1939 making his first international appearance in the Ashes series against Australia at Trent Bridge. He took 60 wickets at 28.65 for England and during his 168 first-class matches, claimed a total of 690 victims at 21.45

Farnes, who played club Cricket with Gidea Park, was playing against former Essex ‘great’ P.A. (Percy) Perrin in a Club & Ground match who recognised the talent of the 6’4” paceman and directed him towards the County Club. He was called up to play for Essex against Gloucestershire a few weeks later aged only 19 and took 5-36 in his second county match against Kent at Southend although his performance was overshadowed by AP ‘Tich’ Freeman taking all 10 wickets when Essex batted for the first time.

That autumn, Ken went to Cambridge University for three years while also continuing to play for Essex as he enhanced his reputation as a fearsome fast bowler. In his last year at Cambridge, he took seven wickets in the ‘Varsity ‘match and finished with a seasonal haul of 113 victims. This included 13-98 for Essex v Somerset at Taunton and eleven wickets in the match against Surrey at Southend including 7-21 in the second innings enabling his side to claim their first success against these opponents since 1914.

He became a teacher which further limited his opportunity to play for the County although his ten matches for Essex in 1934 brought him 67 wickets at an average cost of 16.07 and Test recognition.

He was regarded as a natural successor to the great Harold Larwood and in his first Test against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1934, he took 10 wickets in the match (5 for 102 and 5 for 77) but was unable to save England from defeat.

A cartilage injury forced him to miss the whole of the season the following year but he returned as hostile as ever to win a place on the winter tour of Australia.

Taking a comparatively short and easy run, he brought the ball down from a great height with the inevitable effect of sharp lift, which made him extremely difficult to time when retaining a good length.

Clacton proved a happy hunting ground for the 6ft 5in specialist. It was there that he achieved the hat-trick against Nottinghamshire and in 1938 recorded match figures of 15 for 113 against Glamorgan, his 8 for 38 in the second innings representing the best figures of his career.

Playing in the prestigious Gentlemen v Players fixture a few weeks earlier, he had taken 8 for 43 in the first innings against the Players to point the way to only the second Gentlemen’s victory since 1914.

He played in all five Tests during the tour to South Africa that followed including the famous “timeless” Test which remained unfinished after ten days.

A very good fielder near the wicket, Farnes reached many catches that would have been impossible for a man of medium height. He had no pretension as a batsman, but in 1936, at Taunton, hit 97 not out in two hours helping Tom Wade to add 149 for the last wicket and with 6 wickets also to his name, Farnes was largely responsible for Essex winning by an innings and 66 runs.

His last summer for Essex in 1939 was another productive one for both Farnes and the county. At the end of August, the fast bowler returned figures of 6-47 at Clacton in the victory against Northamptonshire that secured fourth place for Essex in the County Championship table, their highest position since 1897.

In what proved to be a tragically short career, he amassed a total of 367 wickets at just under 19 runs each for Essex in 79 games. He played 15 times for England, taking 60 wickets at an average of 28.65.

Despite his imposing physique and aggressive pace, he was a gentle man, unmarried and interested in music and painting. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1939 and published an autobiography, ‘Tours and Tests’ in 1940.

He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in the Second World War and trained in Canada. He was a Sergeant prior to being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 1 September 1941. However, six weeks later, on October 20, he died shortly after returning to England following a night-flying exercise when the plane that he was flying crashed near Chipping Warden, Oxfordshire.

He is buried at the Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey.

The memorial plaque which was opened by Doug Insole at Hogg End, Chipping Warden on 20 October 2013.

For Rishi Patel, the wait is nearly over. The wait, that is, to prove he is the man to fill the vacancy in Essex’s middle-order this season.

Ravi Bopara’s departure last year has left a gap in the Double Champion’s top five, and Patel is in the mix of the contenders to take that spot along with a few others.

Patel said: “There is an opportunity there and hopefully in however many games we have to play I’ll put my name in the hat and see where it takes me.

“I’ll try and stay focused and get in that happy place where I want to be from game one. And if I play, great, if not then I’ll continue to work hard until I do.”

There is a sharp intake of breath when the 21-year-old contemplates the hiatus caused by COVID-19.

Patel explains: “It’s hard to describe if I’m honest. We went to pre-season and that was cut short, and we didn’t know how long it was going to last. A lot of people thought it might be a month, six or seven weeks max, but it’s gone on for ages. The last month I’ve really struggled; I’ve just tried to keep myself busy.

“It got to a point where you get frustrated, especially when you see other sports opening up and cricket’s not being allowed. Football’s come back that’s 22 players on the pitch. It’s not like that on a cricket pitch, we can socially distance quite well, hopefully we’ll start soon.”

The Essex players came off furlough at the beginning of last week and have slowly been getting back in the groove in the nets, with Patel saying: “The first 10 minutes you’re always going to be a bit nervous.

“You try and get your feet moving, there is a bit of rustiness there from not doing anything, but you fall back into the swing pretty quickly. You start getting bat on ball, a couple of good shots and you’re happy, your feet move better and you’re confident.

“I love red-ball cricket, I absolutely love it. I enjoy every moment. In red-ball cricket, any technical flaws, any weaknesses, get found out by bowlers. You need to become better and overcome challenges. White-ball is hit-and-miss, and it’s something I need to work on.”

After a promising Championship debut at The Oval last season, Patel was brought down to earth in his next outing at home against Nottinghamshire.

He explains: “A wicket fell about half an hour before lunch and what followed was the most torrid half-hour I have ever faced.

“Luke Fletcher was bowling at me and I literally felt he was all over me. I’ll be honest, I felt I was inadequate to play cricket at that level. That was a big wake-up call. But I think you need to experience those moments in order to get back up.”

The swings and roundabouts continued in the next game when he settled into a match-changing partnership with Tom Westley against Yorkshire, scoring a career-best 35 from 124 balls.
“It was a big contrast to the previous game. It was tough, really tough, just focusing on each ball, really important not to look too far ahead in the game. But I could take that situation and I felt I could play. Suddenly you think ‘I can hack this if I keep doing the right things’.”

Patel gained confidence and experience during the winter playing grade cricket for Balmain South Sydney. His figures there bear examination: he finished top of the Club averages on 55.21 from 15 innings with two centuries and 773 runs.

He also ran into coach David Dawson, a former New South Wales opener, who simplified his approach.

“I’ve now got rid of my trigger and I’m more still and focused on watching the ball from the hand. It’s helped me stay calm and relaxed. He talked a lot about mindset and staying in the zone. I think it’s helped me, though it’s hard to tell without playing any cricket!”

Essex Cricket’s Club Photographer Nick Wood probably saw as much county cricket as anyone last year. He follows the team up and down the country, sitting in the stands capturing every moment. Last year was a special year for Essex, with Anthony McGrath’s side reclaiming the County Championship title, and Nick was there for it all. So with the 2020 season delayed, Nick thought it would be nice to open up his camera and show everyone some of his favourite photos from a wonderful campaign.

Click here to read Part One, or click here to read Part Two.

Through The Lens (Part Three):

Description: 18th September 2019 – Ryan ten Doeschate celebrates Essex taking the wicket of Ben Foakes during Essex vs Surrey – County Championship match at The Cloudfm County Ground.

I love this picture of Tendo as it is a pretty rare moment but captures him brilliantly. He led the team so well, everyone at the ground respects him and he is such a nice guy. When I joined the Club he really went out of his way to make me feel welcome and as a Captain allowed me to get close to the team to capture their highs and lows. As a photographer you are looking for great reactions from the players but Tendo often keeps his cool and is often very calm – too calm for a photographer.

The safest bet for a photographer is to point the camera at Simon Harmer when he is bowling as something is normally going to happen and he tends to give a jubilant celebration which is like finding gold to a snapper. On this day I noticed that Ben Foakes, who was batting, was giving Tendo a sniff of a catch so decided to sit on Tendo with the camera and hope for the best – fortunately it came good and I got the reaction I was looking for. It also worked out well that Harmer is in the background celebrating. Often you can concentrate on a single player for a couple of hours and get absolutely nothing for your efforts but on this day I got lucky.

We like to build a great selection of shots of all the players whilst also trying to tell the story of the day so the marketing team can share what is happening with the fans. Reaction shots like the one above are a great addition to the collection and will get well used.

During a single day of shooting a county game I can easily fire off 2000 frames each of which needs to be looked at sorted and then the top 100 get cropped, straightened, tweaked for exposure and then we type into one who is in the image and what is happening. Most people don’t realise that it is the photographers who are captioning the images prior to sending them off to agencies and the papers – that is why you will see me at the ground with head down looking at the computer so much between overs – we try to edit, process, sort and dispatch live during the game.

Description: 18th September 2019 – Simon Harmer of Essex celebrates taking the wicket of Ollie Pope during Essex vs Surrey – County Championship match at The Cloudfm County Ground.

Simon Harmer is the gift that keeps on giving, especially if you are a photographer. You know when Simon bowls that wickets are going to drop so you don’t have to think too hard about where to point the camera. Simon tends to give you a good reaction too when he takes a wicket, so you have to concentrate hard to keep focused on him rather than quickly focusing upon other players and fielders. On this occasion Harmer had taken the wicket of Ollie Pope and after a short pause threw his hands and fingers in the air. With a big grin. I like to think he was looking for me to catch the moment and I am glad I did or else I might have got an earful later.

I also like the fact that umpire Saggers is in the frame, he is a really keen photographer himself who likes nothing better than a good chat about kit and equipment before, during and after a game.

This image also keeps the commercial team happy as I managed to adjust the crop to keep a sponsor’s name nice and visible – on any day of shooting I try to keep a number of possible customers happy – the fans, marketing team, commercial department, players and agency/newspapers. I see my job first and foremost as capturing the action on the day whilst also making the Club and players come across as best as possible. This is a slightly different brief to other snappers at games whose sole intent is capture the story as it unfolds – I try not to capture Essex wickets falling or other team celebrations (much to my agencies annoyance) but I find that editing pictures of the Essex lads having lost their wickets on the team bus home doesn’t make for a comfortable journey!

Description: 23rd September 2019 – Blotter stands ready on the outfield for the expected rain prior to Somerset vs Essex – County Championship match at The Cooper Associates County Ground.

This is one of the first shots I took at the last game of the season. It was a strange feeling not knowing if I wanted it to rain or not, I think most Essex fans were thinking the same thing if truth be told…

Turning up at Taunton, ready for the last game felt very surreal. Having won the T20 tournament was crazy but having the chance to witness and capture the double just seemed such an amazing opportunity.

When I first joined the Club I saw a number of images of past Essex teams lifting trophies and celebrating and I always hoped to be around and close enough to the team to be able to record it both for the fans and also the players. I feel a really strong sense of responsibility that the history of the Club should be recorded and captured, I feel that I play my part in helping the team by showing the players in the best possible way, recording their achievements. The opportunity to be the Club Photographer during a truly golden period felt great and I knew that I had the opportunity to catch some truly great shots that will be seen and enjoyed by fans for years to come.

All week I had been looking at the weather reports building up to the game and it looked as though rain might affect the game so I was keen to ensure that I got to the ground nice and early with the intention of looking for some rain related images. There seemed to be three stories the papers were keen to run with that week – the weather, the pitch and Jack Leach so I was intent on getting some of those covered. Having arrived really early I did my usual lap of the ground looking for the best angle to shoot from and anything that would suggest bad weather – the sky was a bit mixed with some clear blue but also a few dodgy looking clouds. Fortunately, I found a blotter that screams rain and the angle was great with the stand in the background. The biggest issue was that I had to shoot towards the sun and so the blotter came out very dark, so I had to play just a little in Photoshop to bring it back to life. I had my weather shot nice and early and hoped the umpires might catch a sighting in the paper and waste a few overs.

Description: 23rd September 2019 – The covers are on as rain stops play during Somerset vs Essex – County Championship match at The Cooper Associates County Ground.

I think this image summarises so much of those few exhausting days at Taunton. There was the constant threat of rain, hope of victory yet the menace of the pitch. I kept thinking of the earlier trip to Taunton to endure the rain savaged 50-over match and dreaded to think that we might again be on the receiving end of some bad luck.

I shot quite a lot on the first day from this angle, I was sat next to the Somerset snapper (finding where the home team photographer sits is always a quick way of finding a good angle) who wasn’t in too optimistic a mood for his team. Strangely enough I had ended up sitting next to him at Edgbaston for the T20 Finals Day so we got to know each other pretty well by now.

There was quite a battle of the brollies going on for much of the match – the sight of a cloud was enough for many Essex fans to whip out the brollies whilst the home fans resisted using them as much as possible – for my part I couldn’t shoot enough brollies and keep sending them off to the papers. This frame shows exactly where we were with the stand in the background along with the lights and town. At the time it was nerve wracking but looking back now, nothing but good memories.

Description: 24th September 2019 – Jack Leach of Somerset warms up prior to the Essex batting innings during Somerset vs Essex – County Championship match at The Cooper Associates County Ground.

The papers had been banging about Jack Leach for the last week and although I had captured a few standard shots nothing that did him or his glasses any real justice. I had decided to climb up the stairs and sit in the corner of the tallest stand so I had a good view of the field set by Somerset.

I arrived nice and early as usual, did my usual look around the ground but by the time I finished the loop and got back to my seat all of my kit had disappeared, so I spent the next 40 minutes finding out where it had been moved to by one of the stewards (he arrived a bit late and his mate forgot to tell him that it was my kit and they were keeping an eye on it for me).

I sat in my seat a bit grumpy and then Jack Leach came out and started warming up right in line with where I was sat and bowled a few balls down to his mate – it was perfectly set up which never happens – he even kept his specs on for me, I felt the day might turn out all right after all.

About Unshaken Photography:

Nick runs courses across the region for people with a range of ability, so book your place and get more from your cameras when taking photos. Locations for the courses include The Cloudfm County Ground in Chelmsford, Cambridge, Maidstone or St Albans.

Courses cover the basics for beginners, portraits, landscapes and even sport, so if you fancy improving your photography get in touch with Nick at [email protected], by phone on 01245 494258 or visit the website – click here.

The squad are out of lockdown, back to training, but into a world that has changed almost beyond recognition.

“It’s great being back,” says Head Coach Anthony McGrath after a Spring of forced inactivity. “Not that they’re normal training days.

“The players can’t train with their team-mates; they’re training one-on-one [with the coaches]. The bowlers aren’t bowling at batters; they’re bowling at a net. The batters are just facing a coach throwing down. It’s very strange and abnormal.”

The double-winning champions of 2019 were released from captivity on Monday, though progress through stage one of their regulated rehabilitation has been frustratingly slow.

“Because the lads haven’t done anything for three months they’ve got to go in and see the physio and do the fitness tests to check them out physically,” says McGrath. “Then we get about a half-hour with them for the skills stuff. It’s taken us three days to get through all 21 members of the pro squad who are here at the moment.

“We’ve got a temperature check when we come in the ground and we fill in a questionnaire, which asks, ‘How are you feeling? Have you had any symptoms?’ But we haven’t got testing in place. We’re obviously training with social distancing because it’s one-on-one at the moment. Everyone’s got their own ball. The coaches have to wear gloves and masks if we’re inside.”

The present regime – overseen by coaches McGrath, Barry Hyam, Andre Nel and Tom Huggins – is likely to be repeated for another week, until the structure is announced for the truncated season to start on August 1.

“Until we’re clear on what comp we’re playing we’re pretty much in the dark,” McGrath admits. “So we are using these two weeks to try and get through as much as we can according to the guidance we’ve been given. And then we’ll react to which comp we’re going to be playing in. We should know that by the end of next week.

“We’re happy to play whatever competition, be it red-ball, 20-over or 50-over, as long as it’s safe for players, staff and whoever’s in the ground. But a bio-secure environment, where you are staying on site and not leaving, is very different to what we’re doing. We’re training, going home and seeing family and following government advice.

“The players look in decent shape. They’ve been doing their individual training, but they’ve not done a lot of gym work. They’ve lost quite a bit of muscle from not being in the gym. There is a worry about – if we do play red-ball – how much they will have bowled before because they won’t have done a lot. The medical team are doing their sums on how their fitness figures look from March to now, and we’ll find that out soon.

“All we really want, if we are going to be playing at the start of next month, is to prepare properly. And that’s preparing as a team, doing proper team drills and getting everything going. At the moment we’re not. So we’re hoping that in the next week or two we’ll be able to prepare and train as normal.”

It is likely that when cricket does return, it will be behind closed doors. “It’s going to be very strange,” McGrath admits. “If you’ve ever been to a pre-season friendly with no one in the ground, it’s very eerie and it feels very slow-paced. The players have got to deal with it. I’m sure they’ll be as professional as they can.

“But there’s no doubt about it, the game won’t be the same without spectators and the interaction with the crowd. Hopefully it won’t be long before they allow spectators back into the ground.”

The ECB have approved a 1 August start date for the 2020 season with formats and fixtures set to be announced in the weeks ahead – read more.

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Today, Amara Carr, Naomi Dattani and Cordelia Griffith were announced as the three players to be awarded professional playing contracts with the London and East regional hub of the new domestic Women’s structure.

In what is a first for the domestic Women’s game, the three players will become full-time professional cricketers, retained with immediate effect. In the first instance the players will sign Regional Retainers, before progressing on to full-time contracts as soon as they are awarded.

Each of Carr, Dattani and Griffith have most recently represented Middlesex Women, and were selected from all players within the London and East regional set-up, which comprises Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the first-class counties of Middlesex, Essex and Northamptonshire, as well as the national counties of Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire.

Ealing born Dattani, 26, is a Middlesex cricketer through and through, progressing through the county age group system into the Women’s first eleven, making her competitive List A first-team debut in 2008. Dattani, who has been Middlesex Women’s fifty-over captain since 2017, has been part of the MCC Women’s & Girl’s Performance Academy since 2019 and was earlier this year named as the Middlesex Women’s captain across both formats.

Carr, also 26, began her cricketing journey in her home county of Devon, where she too played through the age-groups to make her List A debut in 2008. In 2017 Carr joined Middlesex to play in the T20 format of the game, although remained a representative of Devon in the fifty-over format until the end of 2019, when she joined Middlesex across both formats.

Griffith, 24, joined Middlesex from Essex, where she also advanced through the age-group system from a young age, making both her T20 and List A debuts for Essex Women in 2010. In 2019 Griffith joined Middlesex for both formats and became part of the MCC’s Women’s & Girl’s Performance Academy.

The current ongoing Coronavirus pandemic means that the three won’t be competing any time soon for their new regional hub, with all domestic competitions currently on hold until at least the 1st August.

In the short term however, the players will be benefitting from a comprehensive strength and conditioning programme, lifestyle support and will be engaged in ambassadorial programmes within the region, with a return to training programme also being developed, in preparation for future competition.

The new Women’s Elite Domestic Structure, which was unveiled in October 2019, forms part of the ECB’s ten-point action plan for Transforming Women’s and Girls’ Cricket. The London and East hub is one of eight regional hubs across the country – hubs which are now home to 25 newly professional Women’s players.

Danni Warren, Regional Director of Women’s Cricket for the London and East Hub, commented:

“This is such an exciting day for women’s cricket, and women’s sport on the whole. A lot of work has been put in behind the scenes, over many years, by players and administrators alike to make this step to professionalism possible. This underlines the commitment by ECB and the cricket network has to growing the women & girls game in this country, and puts us in a really positive position to return to cricket as soon as feasibly possible.

“I am really looking forward to working with Amara, Naomi and Cordelia, I know all three girls well and they bring so much more than a high degree of skill on a cricket pitch. I know that each of them will give their all to achieve success for the region and for themselves, and I cannot wait to get started on this journey.”

This week’s Cult Heroes looks far back into the history books to a player who 19 years at the Club and played one Test for England.

Jack O’Connor was a real Cult Hero for the Club and played alongside some of the other greats in the Club’s history such as Tom Pearce, Morris Nichols and Hopper Read.

This series is supported by Allen Ford and we thank them for their continued support.

Essex Career Stats (1921-1939)
Debut: 14 May v Worcestershire (County Championship)
Appearances: 516
Runs: 27,722
First Class Average: 35.18
Highest Score: 248 v Surrey at Brentwood in 1934
Centuries: 71
Fifties: 127
Wickets: 537
Average: 32.63

Footage of Jack O’Connor in action during the 1934 season at Castle Park, Colchester. The match was a draw against Sussex in the County Championship where he scored 63 and 8 – view scorecard.

Born in Cambridge on November 6, 1897, Jack O’Connor was an attractive stroke maker and proved to be the outstanding Essex batsman for two decades preceding World War II. A right-handed batsman and spin bowler, he made his debut for the County aged 23 when he was selected to play against Worcestershire at Leyton in May 1921 but was run out for thirteen. His career started modestly with just four matches that year and for a player that was to prove such an accomplished and illustrious servant to Essex cricket, his early experiences in the first team were quite unspectacular.

Initially, he seemed nothing out of the ordinary playing somewhat carefully and although he often laid solid foundations for his side, his dour approach lacking enterprise was not the style that got people talking fondly about his entertainment value as a batsman.

However, having become an established member of the team in 1922, and with a first century to his name when scoring an unbeaten 102 against Northamptonshire, the confidence began flowing into his game and correspondingly he started to attract favourable comment from the Essex public as he blossomed into a stylish batsman always looking to impose himself on opposition attacks.

With a quick eye and nimble footwork, he added power into his shots and, using exemplary technique, he was brilliant when facing spin bowling. However, despite being a fine driver and hooker of the ball, he failed to disguise his dislike for fast bowling.

He was the first professional to captain Essex when he took over against Somerset in 1938 and he accumulated 71 centuries for the county, including ten against old adversaries Kent, during a career which saw him become a cornerstone of the batting. He first reached 1,000 runs for a season in 1923 when aggregating 1,218 as his career started to blossom. Known as the ‘Laughing Cavalier’, it was in August that year, when Jack started to attract the headlines having complied scores of 111 not out, 128, 93 and 99 in consecutive matches.

Although he failed by just 3 runs to reach the four-figure mark in 1924, he cleared the milestone the following year and continued to do so for the next fourteen seasons until first-class cricket ceased with the outbreak of World War II. His most productive summer came in 1934 when he scored 2,350 runs including nine centuries at an average of more than 55.

Known as the ‘Laughing Cavalier’, Jack was born with cricket in his blood. His father was a leg-spinner with Derbyshire, his uncle, Herbert Carpenter, was for years one of the mainstays of Essex batting while his great uncle, Robert Carpenter, had been one of the leading batsmen in England in the 1860s.

Jack was also a fine bowler and took a hat-trick at Worcester in 1925. He just missed out on the “double” the following season when he scored 1,402 runs and took 93 wickets. Three years later, he aggregated 2,256 runs at an average of 47.44 including six centuries whilst during the following summer; he accumulated 2,288 runs at 44.86 with nine hundreds. One of those came at Folkestone against Kent where he scored 116 of which 92 runs came in boundaries. The old adversaries included the formidable leg-spinner ‘Tich’ Freeman, a bowler whom Jack considered as “the finest leg-spinner that I ever faced and there were a lot of good ones in those days.

His run scoring for the county was prolific. In 1934, he scored 2,350 runs at just under 56. During this season, he recorded his highest score of 248 against Surrey at Brentwood. Although this was the fourth and final time that he as to pass the 2,000 runs mark in a season, he continued to be a thorn to opposition attacks.

For years, he was on the verge of Test selection. He played once against South Africa in 1929 and that winter, took part in three matches for the M.C.C. in the West Indies, which Wisden then called Representative Matches, but which are now included in the Test records, though the English side could not possibly be described as more than England A. In 1939, Jack scored 1,716 runs in 1939 at an average of 37.30, the fifteenth successive year that he had topped the 1,000 runs milestone.

In 516 first-class matches for Essex, he scored 27,722 runs from his 864 innings at an average of 35.18. A small man who bowled slow right-arm, his repertoire included leg-breaks and off-spin and allowed him to capture 537 wickets at 32.63 which included 17 five-wickets hauls and two 10-wickets hauls.

In all first-class cricket, he made 28,917 runs with an average of 34.79, scored 72 centuries, including at least one against every other county and both Universities. He considered that his best innings for Essex was the 111 not out against Hampshire at Leyton in 1923 after the county had been set 185 to win. O’Connor apart, not one batsman reached 17 but he steered the side to victory hitting 18 fours in an innings spanning three hours and we won the match with two boundaries in the final over.

Jack made a hundred against every other first-class county of the time and also the Cambridge and Oxford University teams, but the Second World War brought an end to his career. His final match for the county came at Clacton where he signed off with an unbeaten 54 in his final innings before Ken Farnes took 6 for 47 as Essex beat Northamptonshire by 210 runs.

After his retirement he was for many years coach at Eton and in 1946 and 1947 played for Buckinghamshire. Later, he coached at Chigwell.

He died in the Forest Hospital; Buckhurst Hill on February 22, 1977 aged 79.

Dan Lawrence remains resolutely phlegmatic about the attention he is receiving as England’s brightest prospect of a benighted cricket summer.

The Chingford man said: “I think if people are talking about you in a positive way, then you can only really take it as a good thing. I would rather people were talking about me than not.”

The words will need to be transformed into deeds when the Essex batsman joins up for the first time with the senior England squad tomorrow for training ahead of a three-Test series against the West Indies, but Lawrence is no shrinking violet.

He said: “I’m really confident about my game at the moment and I’m desperate to get out there. I’d love it to be in an England shirt, but we’ll have to see how it plays out. And if not, then I’ll go back to Essex and score loads of runs.”

He is undaunted by the weight of expectation on 22-year-old shoulders after a phenomenal winter in Australia with England’s Lions.

“I think one of my strongest attributes is my belief in my own ability. It’s not something I’ll ever doubt. It is nice having good press and people expecting things of me. Yes, it does put you under a bit more pressure, but pressure is a privilege.”

Lawrence scored 493 runs Down Under in six matches across two formats, including two centuries, two fifties and no innings less than 35 (and that in a game where he took three wickets in four balls for career-best List A figures of 4/28).

He went armed with an embryonic batting style, having significantly changed his trigger movement, which he had premiered at Chelmsford in the penultimate Championship game of last season against Surrey when he rattled up his first century in more than a year.

He explained: “I had a big pre-delivery movement that I shortened down quite a lot. I just tried to stay as still as possible instead of moving quite a lot, which was getting me into quite a bit of trouble. Thankfully the Surrey game was the start of that and I scored quite a few runs with it in the winter. It took quite a lot to make that change, but I think it was a really important thing for me to do and I’m happy I did it.”

In a summer of self-analysis and self-improvement, Lawrence also altered his approach to white-ball cricket and reaped the benefits as Essex won the T20 Blast for the first time.

He commented: “It was just a mindset change really. I always had the skills to be able to perform, but it was just the mindset of trying to dominate, be ultra-positive and take the attack to the opposition.”

That rolled on into the first part of the winter when he helped Deccan Gladiators to the final of the Abu Dhabi T10 and earned himself contracts with Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League – subsequently shelved because of his Lions selection – and with London Spirit in this season’s inaugural Hundred tournament – now mothballed for a year because of COVID-19.

After a busy winter that included an ECB specialist batting camp in Mumbai, it looked as though Lawrence would hit the ground running when the 2020 domestic campaign opened.

“Yes,” he agrees, “I was really looking forward to playing with Essex at the start of the season and pushing my case for England selection. But you can’t control what’s going on. I’m one of the fortunate ones in that I’ve been able to get back into training earlier than others, and I’m grateful for that. But I did really want to go back to Essex and put the scores on paper that I knew I could and help Essex win as many games of cricket as possible.

“I want to score hundreds in red-ball cricket and show everyone I can score nice long hundreds as well as go out and play in a completely different role in one-day or T20 cricket – with the option of me bowling some off-spin as well. I want to keep my options open and see where it takes me.”

When Dan Lawrence dreamt as a boy of playing for England he can never have imagined it would involve thermometers, face masks and hand sanitisers.

However, like the other 29 England contenders assembling in Southampton next week for training ahead of the three-Test series against the West Indies, the fast-maturing Essex batsman is having to get used to the protocols that make up cricket’s new normal in this COVID-19 era.

Lawrence explains: “It all sounds like a lot of rules, but I’m sure we’ll get used to it very quickly and it will become second nature.”

The 22-year-old has already had a taste of the way things are going to be in the immediate future. He has just finished a period of individual training within the England set-up before entering the bio-secure bubble at the Ageas Bowl from Tuesday.

Before setting off for those sessions at the Oval, Lawrence says: “Every morning you have to check your temperature to make sure it’s not above 37.5 degrees. If it’s above 37.5 degrees, you can’t go to training. Every day you have to fill out an online questionnaire so the physios know how you are feeling.

“Then there’s lots of hand sanitiser and social distancing. They give you your own set of balls which no one else is allowed to touch. The one-skin policy. Under this, the balls that the coaches throw down at us are their balls. I’m not allowed to touch them with my hands. So instead of picking the ball up and tossing it back to them, I have to hit it back.

“It was a bit strange at the first session because your natural reaction is to go and pick it up. But anytime you tried to do that all the coaches went, ‘No, no, you can’t do that’. But, to be honest, we’ve got used to it now.

“It sounds like a lot of procedure, but it’s really not that difficult. I think because the boys are so happy to be back training that we’re going to do everything we can to make sure we keep following the guidelines. I can’t see any issues.”

The ECB have sent the players an extensive email of instructions before they go into lockdown in Hampshire, with Lawrence adding: “They have created this bubble that no one is allowed in, only the players. They’re trying to create the most secure environment they can where we’re getting tested frequently, once a week.

“It’s going to be quite simple, I think. We’re going to be training a lot, and there’s a golf course on-site and I suspect we’ll be there during most of our downtime. We’ll end up staying in the hotel, having dinner there every night, and trying to hit as many balls as possible during the day.”

Though this is Lawrence’s first involvement with the senior squad, he has progressed along the pathway of England Under-19s and Lions, with whom he excelled last winter, and there will be plenty of familiar faces behind the masks.

“With it being a very young group, I have actually interacted with most of the lads quite a lot, so fitting in with the group shouldn’t be much of an issue.”

The plan is for a three-day inter-squad match on Wednesday week after which the team for the first Test on July 8 will be named.

Lawrence has spent lockdown at girlfriend Lydie’s family home just outside Basingstoke.

“As a cricketer being furloughed, there’s not too much you can achieve cricket-wise, but I did try and do everything I could to make sure I’m in the best possible nick for the upcoming events.

“There are very strict rules governing furlough: no communication with any staff at Essex for a start. Obviously you can catch up and things like that, but you can’t have any structured sessions. But I think all of us are old enough and ugly enough to work out what we have to do for ourselves. It’s really quite self-explanatory: keep as fit as you can and make sure when the time comes that you are ready to go. And that’s what I’ve been doing.

“But, yeah, I was desperate to get the bat back in my hands and thankfully it has been going all right so far.”