On Sunday 16th April, Essex hosted the Six Counties Championship at Littleport.

A new rule instigated for this year, allowed teams to play up to 6 players short, with blocks playing one short, without any loss of woods, the hope being that it would enable teams to compete, who might otherwise have hesitated to do so under the existing rules.

Happily it had the desired effect, with Bedfordshire making a welcome return to the event after being absent last year.

Bedfordshire came to the event with 21 players, while Hertfordshire had 22, and everyone else had a full squad of 24.

Round 1 Suffolk were off to a near perfect start, dropping only 1 point against Norfolk. Essex won 4 games to Hertfordshire’s 2, and Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire shared their points equally, 6 each. Suffolk led the way by 3 points over Essex.	Pts Suffolk 11 Essex 8 Cambridgeshire 6 Bedfordshire 6 Hertfordshire 4 Norfolk 1
Round 2 Another good session for Essex, who picked up 8 points against Bedfordshire, and another bad session for Norfolk, who only won 1 of their 6 games against Cambridgeshire, while Suffolk and Hertfordshire shared the points in their games. Suffolk still led the way, on 17 points, but only by a single point over both Cambridgeshire and Essex. Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire were on 10 points, while Norfolk were languishing at the bottom, after a terrible start to their day, on only 3 points.	Pts Suffolk 17 Essex 16 Cambridgeshire 16 Bedfordshire 10 Hertfordshire 10 Norfolk 3
Round 3 Suffolk just managed to just edge out Cambridgeshire, taking 7 points to Cambridgeshire’s 5. Bedfordshire had another good session, sharing the points with Hertfordshire, but it was Essex who really came on song here, winning every game against Norfolk. Those results put Essex to the top, on 28 points, 4 ahead of Suffolk, with Cambridgeshire a further 3 points back. Herts and Beds were on 16 points, while Norfolk had made no further progress.	Pts Essex 28 Suffolk 24 Cambridgeshire 21 Bedfordshire 16 Hertfordshire 16 Norfolk 3
Session 4 After a long wait, Norfolk finally had a decent session, picking up 9 points, against Bedfordshire, who were starting to fade. Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire split the points 6-6, while Essex, playing nearest rivals Suffolk, looked to be heading towards securing an unbeatable lead, but with a couple of the games turned against them towards the end, enabling Suffolk to pick up 8 points, to Essex’s 4. That left Suffolk and Essex tied on 32 points, with Cambridgeshire on 27, Hertfordshire 22, Bedfordshire 19, and Norfolk quadrupling their tally to 12.	Pts Essex 32 Suffolk 32 Cambridgeshire 27 Hertfordshire 22 Bedfordshire 19 Norfolk 12
Session 5 Another much better session for Norfolk, picking up 5 points against Hertfordshire, although that did give Herts their only winning session of the day. But the two other games were much more emphatic. Suffolk dropped only one game against Bedfordshire, picking up 10 points, which meant Essex had a lot to do against Cambridgeshire. It was, however, a clean sweep for Cambridgeshire, one of only 2 on the day. Norfolk’s final two sessions saw them add 14 points, but they had left it too late to life themselves off the bottom, finishing on 17 points. Bedfordshire faded somewhat towards the end of the day, but still held on to 5th with 21 points. Hertfordshire came home in 4th, on 29 points, only 3 behind Essex whose day ended badly after having looked so promising with only a few games to go. Cambridgeshire looked like they were heading for third, but their demolition of Essex right at the end left them comfortably in second place on 39 points, only 3 points shy of eventual winners Suffolk.	Final Pts F A Suffolk 42 292 186 Cambridgeshire 39 259 213 Essex 32 225 235 Hertfordshire 29 255 215 Bedfordshire 21 189 283 Norfolk 17 185 273

A full copy of all the day's results can be found here.