Foodies Festival Returns

Foodies Festival, the UK’s biggest touring celebrity food and music festival series, has announced a return to Chelmsford with a starstudded line-up of celebrity chefs and chart-topping music stars, including Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Five.

Throughout the 3-day weekend, visitors will enjoy a jam-packed schedule of TV cooking show champions and award-winning chefs in the interactive live theatres. In the Chefs Theatre, celebrities will create their signature dishes and share new tips and tricks, whilst in the Cake & Bake Theatre, star bakers whip up showstoppers and offer tempting sweet treats.

In The Kids Cookery School, Foodies SuperChefs make cooking fun, helping younger guests to prepare delicious food which they can take away and enjoy. Masterclasses in the Drinks Theatre include tutored Champagne, beer, cider, cocktail and wine-tasting, including presentations from BBC expert Joe Wadsack, and award-winning local breweries.

Visitors can browse the latest food trends in the Shopping Village, meet local producers in the Artisan Market and taste exotic and unusual new dishes in the Feasting Tent - which features a mouthwatering range of street food and delicacies from all four corners of the globe. Other attractions include a fairground, children’s activities, and family-friendly areas.

New Features for 2023

Known as Gastro-Glastonbury, the festival will take place at Hylands Park from 23rd - 25th June. The 3-day event features live cooking demonstrations from top chefs drawn from the ranks of MasterChef, Great British Bake Off and Great British Menu, plus top-rated Michelin-starred and award-winning chefs. Early announcements of star names appearing in the live cooking theatres include: Great British Bake Off 2022 winner, Syabira Yusoff and MasterChef champions Tom Rhodes and Dhruv Baker.

Syabira Yusoff said: “I’m looking forward to sharing my passion and cooking in front of a live audience on the Foodies Festival tour. I’ll be baking some of my favourite cakes, sharing recipe ideas and talking about my amazing experience on the Great British Bake Off.”

The musical feast is just as sumptuous, with charttopping disco diva Sophie Ellis-Bextor and 90s Brit Award winning boyband Five. Sophie Ellis-Bextor said: “It’s wonderful to be joining the Foodies Festival tour again. Warm summer weekends full of lovely food and music and families having fun together - I can’t wait!”

Showcasing the best of Essex, many of the most highly acclaimed Michelin and multi-award-winning chefs will also appear, including, chef-patron Paul Croasdale, star of Great British Menu and head chef from 3 AA Rosette awarded Flitch of Bacon, Dunmow; Michelin starred chef-patron Jeff Galvin from Galvin Green Man in Chelmsford; chef-patron Paul Wendholt from Bib Gourmand-awarded Kintsu in Colchester; and head chef Jon Hardy from Michelin recommended Food By John Lawson, Leigh-on-Sea.

New for Fridays, the festival launches Cocktails, Cabaret and Cake, kicking off each weekend with a fun-fuelled schedule of events with a comprehensive selection of traditional and on-trend new cocktails to tempt the tastebuds, cocktail-making sessions with flamboyant mixologists and theatre shows. Including entertaining cabaret sessions, drag artists, competitions, comedy, top tribute acts and local performers, all headlined by a superb ABBA tribute band.

• Top TV Chef Challenge: This battle of the best will see winners and finalists of MasterChef competing with the winners of Bake Off and Great British Menu as they take to the live stage in a highly competitive cook-off to create the most impressive dish.

• Theatre Takeovers: Expect comedy, hit songs, audience participation, drag queens and a lot of fun!

• Green Fingers: meet the experts hosting sessions on grow your own fruit and veg, discover new varieties, recipe ideas and health benefits.

• Foodies Favourites: Meet the authors and discover new recipes in the Cookbook Shop with celebrity signings, photo opportunities and top chefs showcasing their latest cookbooks.

London-based world chilli eating champion Shahina Waseem will challenge those brave enough to compete. Competitions will be broadcast to League of Fire audiences around the world.

Kids Can Cook: Budding junior masterchefs get creative in the Kids Cookery School, hosted by Foodies superchefs.

The Musicians Against Homelessness main stage will feature over 25 superb artists, including top headliners, the best of local bands and an introduction to exciting new acts from across the UK.

Director Sue Hitchen said: “Foodies Festival events are a celebration of amazing food, drink and entertainment and we are proud to support local artisan producers and restaurants. We’ve all had a difficult few years, so to help keep things affordable, festival prices have been frozen for the third year running even though our stars and features get bigger and better every year. We offer a great value day out for families and friends.”

For the fifth year running, the festival is supporting Musicians Against Homelessness (MAH) with tickets raising money for UK-wide homelessness charity Crisis. MAH founder Emma Rule said: “We are thrilled to be back at Foodies with our music stage and fantastic lineup of artists, raising much needed funds during these challenging times.”

Dates and Tickets

23rd - 25th June 2023

Hylands Park, Chelmsford, CM2 8FS

Day tickets from £3 (child) and £18 (adult)

Weekend tickets from £38 (3-day)

On sale now at www.foodiesfestival.com

A History of Sport in the Chelmsford Area Part 8 - By Stephen Norris

This articled deals with the history of cricket in Chelmsford since the Second World War.

Although Essex took over the New Writtle Street cricket ground in 1946, the state of the wicket was a cause for concern, as was the low crowds. In 1952 only a narrow vote reprieved matches at the county town after the festival week lost money. 3,000 people paid £377 over the 6 days compared with the 29,243 who had paid £3,005 in a record week that had just ended at Ilford. After a great effort to increase the crowds, 25,000 people attended the next cricket week, but attendances soon went back to being low and in 1957 there was no cricket week in the town. The Weekly News commented that this was ‘one more indication that the people of the town are not sports minded’. County cricket did not return to Chelmsford for ten years.

In 1964 the club moved its headquarters back to the town and the intention was to buy the ground from the Wenley Trust. This would enable the club to build a new pavilion and use the surrounding land to lay out a car park and eventually an indoor cricket hall. The actual buying of the ground only came about because another county, Warwickshire, lent the club £15,000 on an interest-free loan. A new pavilion was built in 1970 and the following year saw a record 7,500 crowd at the County Ground.

The team led by Brian ‘Tonka’ Taylor started doing well in One Day cricket, finishing 3rd in 1969, 4th in 1970 and 3rd in 1971 in the John Player League. Finances were however still tight and local prisoners painted the pavilion and tended the pitch. In 1975 almost 25,000 crammed into the ground to watch the Australians for three days, and Hampshire in the John Player League for one day.

After a number of near misses, including a second place in the County Championship and a narrow loss in the Gillette Cup semifinal, the county finally won the first trophy in its 103 year existence: the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1979. In August of the same year Essex went on to win the County Championship for the first time. And after 3 second places, Essex finally won the John Player League in 1981. Then in 1985 the county won the 60 over Nat West Trophy at Lords. The following year the county won the County Championship for the second time. When Essex won its fifth county title in 1991, victory was secured at Chelmsford as was its sixth title in 13 years the following year. In 1997 the club won the 60 Over trophy again at Lords and won the Benson and Hedges trophy the following year.

Despite this unprecedented run of success, Essex was relegated to the Second Division of the County Championship in 1999, when it was split into two, because of their low finish the previous season. The last match of the following season saw them promoted back to the top tier. Each of the following two seasons again saw relegation followed immediately by promotion. 2005 saw Essex win the One Day league with three matches to spare, and three years later the county won the Friends Provident final at Lords.

After relegation again, 2009 saw promotion for the county once more after a dramatic late run in. Once again this was followed by immediate relegation. The club stayed in Division Two of the Championship until 2016 and four unsuccessful visits to Twenty20 finals in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2013 were the county’s only flirtation with success until the side coached by Chris Silverwood were promoted back to Division 1 of the County Championship.

Although the club always lacked the financial muscle of some other counties, assiduous development of local talent such as Jamie Porter and Sam Cook, and a keen eye for outside expertise (eg, the phenomenal Simon Harmer!) led the county to outstanding Division 1 titles in 2017 and 2019. The county completed an unlikely double by winning the Twenty20 title. Three wins in the final 4 group games had seen the county sneak into the quarter finals. In the final, Simon Harmer took the best ever bowling figures of 3 for 16 and then hit the winning run.

In 1996 the club took advantage of £100,000 grant to build an indoor cricket school for young cricketers. The land was bought from Chelmsford City Football Club.

In 1992 Graham Gooch, one of the cricketers most responsible for the county’s success, was honoured in the form of a sculpture placed the near the ground on New London Road. The £20,000 bronze figure by John Doubleday was commissioned by property developers. Gooch, of course, unveiled the work. Gooch was arguably the greatest of many outstanding Essex players during the club’s halcyon period. He captained both Essex and England in a playing career spanning from 1973 to 2000, during which he became the most prolific run scorer of all time with over 67,000 runs in all forms of the game. In 1980 he was named the Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

Gooch’s career underwent an unusual detour when he went on the 1982 rebel tour of South Africa. This resulted in him and others such as Geoffrey Boycott, Alan Knott and Bob Woolmer being banned from Test cricket for 3 years. In the film The Wilderness Years he said that ‘others’ had decided he had no place in English cricket so he decided to go on the tour. After returning to the Test team in 1985, a severe loss of form led him to being dropped. By 1990 however, he was successfully leading England as captain, his position strengthened by his habit of leading from the front, his batting average being twice that of his fellow teammates. In 2001, after his retirement as a player, he became head coach at Essex. During 2009 he became England’s batting coach, a position which he took full time in 2012. He was also one of the first sportsmen to promote hair transplants after his hair began receding in the mid 1990s!

Keith Fletcher played a vital role in the transformation of Essex into a major power in county cricket. He was nicknamed the ‘Gnome’ by teammate Ray East, because his winklepickers had begun to turn up at the toes because of wear. Fletcher, according to cricket writer Colin Bateman, was ‘a tough cookie, a shrewd man who could bluff opponents like the most disarming of poker players’. He was captain of the national team when the defection of several high profile players when the previously mentioned unofficial tour of South Africa occurred. In the mid 1990s, Fletcher was manager of England, a particularly unsuccessful period for the team. He returned to coach the Essex team until 2001.

Another famous recent Essex county cricketer was Nasser Hussain, who grew up in Ilford and went to Forest School, Walthamstow. He was selected for Essex’s Under 11 team as young as 8 years old. At 12 he was the youngest to play for Essex’s Under 15 team. His bowling suffered after he grew in height by around a foot over a winter. Nasser felt he had let his father down and for a while he slipped behind his playing contemporaries. His batting progressed however, although he never thought he was a natural.

Hussain made his Test debut in 1990 and was England’s captain from 1999 to 2003. His career was by no means a smooth one, often responding defiantly to criticism. After he retired from cricket he immediately became a commentator for Sky Sports. Hussain still lives locally with his family in Little Baddow and in 2010 was coaching at New Hall School.

Peter Edwards died in 2000. Behind the scenes, as Secretary and General Manager he contributed greatly to Essex’s period of success. In 2008, during redecoration at the County Ground, a large cache of cricketing memorabilia collected by Edwards was discovered, including a bat signed by Bradman on his last Ashes tour and a signed photo of WG Grace.

In 2011 Trevor Bailey died. Known as ‘Barnacle’ Bailey because of his defensive batting qualities, Bailey was reckoned to be the leading all rounder for most of his international career. Bailey played 61 Test matches for England and captained the county from 1961 to 1966. In his later playing days he was also the club’s secretary.

Bailey also played football to a high level, playing for Cambridge University, Clapton, Leytonstone and Walthamstow. He added to his income by advertising Brylcream, Shredded Wheat and Lucozade. He was a Test Match Special commentator for 25 years until 1999, during which time fellow commentator Brian Johnston nicknamed him the ‘Boil’. Jonathan Agnew, also of Test Match Special, wrote of him as a ‘dogged batsman. Aggressive bowler. Intelligent cricketer. Wonderfully concise pundit. Great sense of humour’.

Of course, the most illustrious current Essex cricketer is the former England Test and ODI captain Alastair Cook. Cook went to the independent St Paul’s Cathedral School and then boarded at the Bedford School. While still at school he played for Maldon Cricket Club in the summer holidays. He played for Essex’s Academy before making his debut for the first eleven in 2003. Cook marked his first Test match for England with a century and went on to become the youngest English batsman to score 5,000 runs. Cook was appointed captain of the Test team in August 2012 after the retirement of Andrew Strauss. In his spare time, he plays piano and saxophone, contributing the latter to Freefonix, a CBBC animated series.

2006 saw the first mention of the redevelopment of the County Ground. The first scheme proposed increasing seating by 2,000 and an improved cricket school. Initially 180 flats were to be built on the car park and existing cricket school to finance the rest of the scheme. The financial crisis has ensured that the development has failed to go ahead despite planning permission and environmental authorisation being obtained. Concern was expressed about the danger of flooding and the lack of suitability of the proposed tower blocks for the surroundings. The first tower block was completed, but since then the scheme has stalled. It remains very unlikely that a development on the rather grandiose lines of the original will come to fruition, but the current ground is beginning to look very ‘tired’, even to those who love it.

Chelmsford Cricket Club survived to reach its bicentenary in 2011. It moved to the council-owned Chelmer Park in 1972 and by 2012 the club had won 7 league titles over the previous 15 years.

Crowdfunder Campaign Launched to Save Historic Pirate Radio Ship

A charity which maintains the legendary former Radio Caroline pirate radio ship Ross Revenge is launching an ambitious Crowdfunder campaign to raise funds to move the ship in dry dock for essential repairs to ensure its survival.

The work required will include the replacement of corroded sections of the hull, repainting the ship and work on the decks, as well as improvements to crew areas.

“Ross Revenge is a remarkable ship with a fascinating fishing and broadcasting history,” said Radio Caroline station manager Peter Moore. “It is one of only a couple of surviving British super trawlers, the pride of a fleet of distant-water vessels that once plied their trade in the cold and turbulent seas of the North Atlantic from ports such as Grimsby and Hull, but were wiped out when the fishing industry went into steep decline in the late 1970s. Ross Revenge still holds the record for the biggest catch. It is the only remaining pirate radio ship still afloat, having avoided the cutter’s torch when sent to the breaker’s yard to become the floating broadcast base for the Radio Caroline in 1983.”

The ship has endured many dramas during its time on the North Sea, including a brutal armed raid by Dutch authorities in 1989 and the 300ft radio mast falling overboard after the 1997 hurricane, nearly taking the ship down with it. Ross Revenge is also one of only a few ships to survive grounding on the notorious Goodwin Sands, when its anchor chain broke during a storm in 1991. Ross Revenge is now maintained by volunteers and is on the National Historic Ships Register.

Radio Caroline was the most famous of all the pirate radio stations in the 60s, 70s and 80s challenging the British establishment and the BBC broadcasting monopoly, and was at the forefront of a revolution in popular culture. Radio Caroline broadcasts mostly from land these days, but the station still uses Ross Revenge for regular monthly broadcasts from its mooring on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, and visitors from all over the world go out to visit the ship on organised tours.

“Ross Revenge is an iconic ship that has played a significant role in the history of broadcasting in the UK,” said Peter Moore. “We are launching this Crowdfunder campaign to ensure that the ship can continue to operate and provide a platform for independent radio broadcasting for years to come.”

To support the Crowdfunder campaign and secure the future of MV Ross Revenge, please visit rossrevenge.com.

You can listen to Radio Caroline on 648 AM, online, on the app and on DAB in some areas.

Image: Ross Revenge still broadcasting today from the Blackwater Estuary (credit Colm O’Laoi).