County Ground, Chelmsford

The County Ground has been the headquarters of Essex since 1967. The ground is notoriously windy but with great drainage following improvements in 1982. It is a compact ground for a county HQ, but nevertheless much use has been made of the space available. The ground has one double-decker seating area, marquees, executive suites and mostly single-tier seating. Its pavilion, built in the 1970s, has recently been extended and contains all sorts of memorabilia.. It is also one of the only two current grounds with permanent floodlights which were installed in 2002. Graham Gooch has scored most of his 40,000 plus first-class runs here and Essex have had their most successful seasons here, too. Surrey will remember one match for a different reason, though: in 983, they recorded their lowest innings of 14. The playing area, which slopes slightly from south-east to north-west, has been used for more than just cricket in the past: it was used for some time as a standby emergency helicopter landing place for the nearby hospital, until the casualty department was relocated.