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Essex County Cricket Club’s provisional fixture list for the 2007 domestic cricket season can now be revealed.

The 1st XI begin their season at home to Derbyshire in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship during a busy opening to the campaign at The Ford County Ground.

Our first game in the ECB One-Day Trophy (formerly the C&G Trophy) against Hampshire Hawks is the first of two successive home fixtures in the competition, with Kent Spitfires following at Chelmsford a week later.

A mouth-watering trip to Dublin to face Ireland then represents the first away match in one-day cricket of the season in mid-May.

Essex Eagles begin their Twenty20 Cup programme with a home fixture against Sussex Sharks on Friday June 22 hoping to go one better than their semi-final appearance in 2006.

A home clash with Kent Spitfires followed by a visit to Lord’s to face the Middlesex Crusaders completes a trio of attractive Friday night encounters in consecutive weeks in the 20-over game.

The Eagles begin the defence of their NatWest Pro40 Division One title with a trip to Old Trafford to face Lancashire Lightning on Sunday July 15. Our first home match in the competition arrives at the start of August when Worcestershire Royals come to Chelmsford.

August is dominated by Festival cricket in the County with Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Bears coming to Garon Park, Southend from August 8-12 before Leicestershire and Sussex Sharks go to Castle Park, Colchester from August 22-26.

Our season ends in September with a string of games back at The Ford County Ground as local rivals Middlesex round off the season in Essex with a four-day match.

Visit the ECCC website at www.essexcricket.org.uk to access the full set of fixtures.

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The release of the 2007 Fixture List will see Worcestershire CCC go head to head with the ‘big boys’ next season as they look forward to their first ever season in the top division of both League Competitions.

The Liverpool Victoria County Championship will include home and away fixtures against the likes of current County Champions, Sussex, plus Lancashire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire and the only team never to have been relegated, Kent.

The County will also play Warwickshire in each of the four competitions meaning a total of six matches against their local rivals.

The ever-popular Twenty20 Cup keeps its mid- summer schedule in late June. Attendances in this competition rose nationally by 5% last year despite competition from the World Cup so even bigger crowds are anticipated in 2007.

The NatWest Pro40 competition makes a welcome return after proving a great success last season. New Road has been chosen to host the very first game of the competition, as the Royals take on Hampshire Hawks on Friday July 13th.

Chief Executive, Mark Newton, is delighted with the fixture list and says, “Next season really starts now for us as we can put all our plans into the context of a known fixture list. We have a really fast start with 13 days of cricket at New Road in the first three weeks of the season and from then on it is a very balanced home schedule through to September. We are also delighted to be hosting another England ‘A’ game after the success of the match last year against Sri Lanka.”

Newton continued “Cricket is going through a very positive period at the moment as we look forward to the Ashes Series and then the World Cup in the West Indies. There are only 154 days to wait until we start one of the most eagerly anticipated County seasons for years. Tickets for all our home matches are now available online at www.wccc.co.uk and make great Christmas presents.”

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The Surrey fixture list has been released and includes many highlights, notably the Friday evening Twenty20 matches against rivals Middlesex (22 June) and Kent (6 July). There are two other home Twenty20 games as well as a floodlit NatWest Pro40 game against Somerset on 11 September.

This season sees a slightly altered domestic format come into play, with the revised ECB One Day Trophy now taking in semi-finals, meaning that the top two teams from both the South and North Division will qualify. Once again, the NatWest Pro 40 competition will run from the end of July to the end of the season.

Festival cricket remains an integral part of the season. From May 30 to 2 June Surrey will play Kent in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship and Essex in the ECB One Day Trophy on Sunday. On Wednesday, 25-28 July Surrey will play Worcestershire in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship and play Durham on Sunday, 29 July, 2007 in the NatWest Pro40 League.

Tickets for all major domestic games will be available from the ticket office and online at www.surreycricket.com early in the New Year.

In addition to this exciting calendar of events on the domestic scene, the Brit Oval will also play host to several international matches which includes two Twenty20 matches between England and the West Indies (28 June and 29 June), and a one-day international (6 September) and npower Test match between England and India (9-13 August).

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