It's so long Southchurch Park, greetings Garons Park, after it was confirmed yesterday that Essex County Cricket Club would be changing the future location of the Southend Cricket Festival.
The announcement coincides with 100 years of county cricket in the borough, the initial first-class match having been staged on August 13 1906 when Essex met Leicestershire at Southchurch Park.
Now the Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre, or Garons Park as it is more commonly known, will stage the festival week with it's location just a mile and a half from the former seafront base.
A festival committee was re-formed this year under the chairmanship of Peter Butler to re-establish the festival week which had carried the threat of being axed because of dwindling support which saw it sustain a series of annual losses --until 2004 which proved a great success.
Butler explained, "The first thing we had to do was to re-establish the festival and then look ahead.
"We expect to show a profit of between £10,000 and £20,000 this year but unfortunately, Southchurch Park is becoming less suitable for county cricket because of the facilities required by the modern professional game.
"We conducted a feasibility study and proved that we can stage the event at Garons Park.
"In contrast to poor facilities at Southchurch, which included difficulties with the state of the outfield, Garons Park offers a superb venue."
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