Ingatestone & Fryerning Cricket Club 1st XI will face plenty of familiar opponents during the 2024 Mid-Essex Cricket League season.
The new season starts on Saturday 4 May and ends on Saturday 31 August, with the team set to contest 18 matches, weather permitting!
The 1st XI will again be competing in the First Division after an encouraging 2023 season saw them finish fourth in the ten-team table, and captain Bruce Grobler will be hoping to lead IFCC to the Premier Division for the first time since 2008!
Ingatestone & Fryerning will be joined in the First Division by Little Baddow and Aythorpe Roding, who were both relegated from the Premier Division last summer, as well as East Hanningfield and Great Burstead and Broomfield, who were both promoted from the Second Division.
Click here to view the 1st XI’s full First Division fixture list!
The 1st XI last faced Aythorpe Roding in August 2015, when both teams were in the First Division. Former IFCC batsman Richard Eaton scored 106 as Aythorpe edged Ingatestone out by seven runs in a high-scoring thriller, despite 98 from Grobler and 110 from Wayne Holman in reply. It was June 2013 when IFCC last took on Little Baddow, also in the First Division. Half-centuries from Glen Smith and Paul Bonnington and four wickets from Jon Hodgson secured a 22-run win.
The 1st XI last took on both East Hanningfield and Great Burstead and Broomfield as recently as 2021. The two matches against East Hanningfield and Great Burstead were split. Against Broomfield, the home game ended in a thrilling tie, before IFCC scored a seven-wicket win on the road thanks to Sam Blackman’s century.
Alongside them will be five other clubs who were in the First Division in 2023 – South Loughton, Rayleigh, Writtle and Ilford Catholic.
The 1st XI will start their 2024 campaign at home to Rayleigh on Saturday 4 May, before travelling to Little Baddow and hosting Aythorpe Roding. A trip to Terling will round out May, before June kicks-off with back-to-back home games with East Hanningfield and Great Burstead and Ilford Catholics.
The short trip to Writtle and a home match with South Loughton are followed by a trip to newly-promoted Broomfield to round off the first half of the season. The nine fixtures will then be played in reverse, with the season ending at home to Broomfield on Saturday 31 August.
Start times will be confirmed in due course.
Should you wish to join Ingatestone & Fryerning Cricket Club for the 2024 season, IFCC will be hosting pre-season indoor and outdoor nets. For further information, email enquiries@ifcc.co.uk or follow the club on social media!