Gruelling schedule for Essex

Essex's County Championship match with Somerset petered out into a draw after the last two days were severely affected by rain. Overall, it was an encouraging performance after the chastening losses to Lancashire in the Championship and Yorkshire in the 40 over competition.

Positives from the Somerset game included Billy Godleman's maiden century for Essex and David Masters' bowling (four wickets in Somerset's innings) and then a quickfire 50 off 38 balls. The draw leaves Essex lying in fourth in the championship with 44 points, having chalked up a win, a loss and two draws.

With New Zealand paceman Chris Martin finally arrived after visa problems, Mark Pettini's team will go into tomorrow's Clydesdale Bank 40 game against Middlesex at Lords with renewed impetus.

They'll certainly need it with a busy couple of weeks ahead. A win against Middlesex is a must after last week's trouncing at the hands of Yorkshire in the 40 over game.

There's another game in the same competition against Derbyshire at Leek on Monday, before the team travel to Scarborough for a Championship match against Yorkshire.

Then there's just a day's respite before Essex are back home in Chelmsford to face Gloucestershire in a 40 over match next Sunday. Oh, then it's a home match against Kent in the Championship starting the next day.

It's an exhausting schedule in a season that's started earlier than normal, and it's all geared around accommodating the Friends Provident T20 competition which takes over the whole of July to the exclusion of everything else.

Football managers are always moaning about busy schedules when they have to play a couple of games a week. Cricket coaches have as much cause for whinging with this relentless procession of fixtures.