Cook searches for runs

Happy Bank Holiday to my English readers; get back to work to the rest of you. Here at sunny Chelmsford it is the final day of Essex v the New Zealanders and I drove down the A12 this morning with high hopes of a cracking 90 overs. Essex needed 248 runs with nine wickets in hand after Jason Gallian was out in the final over last night. Apart from how the New Zealanders bowl, the interesting thing is how Alastair Cook bats against them.

Cook's form is almost as concerning as Michael Vaughan's before the Test series starts on May 15. Since returning from his winter tours, Cook has scored 27, 21 and 15 in first-class cricket and 8 in a one-day match. He was dropped at slip last night before he scored, so his slow pace this morning is understandable.

As I type, Cook is on 36 off 90 balls and rather scratching around for his runs. Fingers crossed that he finds his groove soon. UPDATE: Cook was out for 57 in the end. In addition to the dropped catch on nought, he was close to being run out and survived a good leg-before appeal before chipping a tame catch to mid off. Essex wobbling on 141-6 now.

Meanwhile, Essex have reacted angrily to a suggestion in The Observer newspaper that "you cannot even get a coffee for love or loose change" at the County Ground. Perhaps peeved at their ground also being called "nondescript" by Will Buckley, the county actually put out a press release observing that while you might not be able to get a hot beverage for love, you can certainly get one for loose change. The press officer then points out that there is an abundance of free tea and coffee in the press box, "albeit without a maid service on-hand". Ouch.

Anyway, Buckley has caused some amusement in the press box after another piece on snooker in which he admitted making "six crucial errors in three column inches". The most hilarious was referring to how snooker players were looking younger all the time, only to have it pointed out to him that he was watching the junior event. Oh well, we all make mistakes and I'm as guilty as any (as readers of this blog will know) but I'll try to keep myself to just one per column inch.