Southend festival: The show must go on says committee (From Echo)

Southend festival: The show must go on says committee

2:26pm Thursday 13th October 2011 in Cricket

THE Southend Cricket Festival will take place next summer, with or without Essex Cricket Club.

That was the stern message from the festival's task force committee at last night's meeting at Southend Civic Centre.

But the committee have also not given up hope of Essex returning to the town.

And they are keen to force a special general meeting to contest the controversial decision to end the festival.

“We need five per cent of the membership on our side to call an SGM which we consider to be 200 people, so that's something we're aiming for,” confirmed Trevor Lawrence, chairman of the task force committee.

“However we remain committed to putting on a festival of cricket for the people of this town.”

Unicorns, who are a team of players without current full-time contracts at first class counties, have been approached to play one of their CB40 fixtures at Garon Park next season.

And another possible option is to host a Twenty20 event at the Southend venue involving Ireland, Holland and the world famous Lashings XI.

The news was revealed to around 100 disgruntled fans of the sport at the meeting who all remain frustrated at Essex's decision to not play in Southend next summer and the club's reasons for bringing it to a close.

Essex insist that they consulted with members before finalising the festival's future but not one of the members at last night's meeting had been asked for their views.

The Essex and Southend Sports Trust (EASST) , who ploughed £250,000 in to making the festival such a success were also not informed of the decision before it was made public.

And nor were several other key groups, with Lawrence admitting the first he knew about the decision was when he read it in the Echo.

Southend Borough Council were also not consulted and Derek Jarvis, council cabinet member for culture and tourism, again reiterated his desire to bring first class cricket back to the town.

“I'm 100 per cent behind what the task force committee are trying to achieve,” said Jarvis.

“The decision defies logic but we have a meeting with the club in two weeks and will be pushing for the festival to be brought back.”

Fans angered by the decision were also urged by the committee to write letters of complaint to Essex's chief executive David East.