Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

What I Did in Chalkwell

Chalkwell is a suburb of Southend, and only a short distance from Westcliff, where I grew up.

I visited the lovely Chalkwell Park, from which there are great views across the River Thames to Kent, lots of times, mostly to watch cricket.

Essex used to have a week`s cricket there every year, which normally meant two first class matches and in later years a Sunday match too.

Among the highlights I have seen there was the great Souh African all - rounder Mike Procter, playing for Gloucestershire, taking a hat - trick. So far as I can recall, his victims were Brian Ward, Keith Fletcher and Keith Boyce.

On another occasion, I saw the Essex opening batsman Geoff Smith get out a few runs short of a century twice on the same day. Essex had batted first and made an average score, then got the other team out cheaply and started their second innings in the late afternoon.

Much later, when I was managing the Classic Cinemas at Westcliff, I held a photo shoot for entrants to the Classic Queen Contest on Chalkwell beach.