Essex 12 – 4 Sussex, 21 March 1998

A weakened Sussex team travelled to Wanstead House knowing that qualification for the National Stages was no longer possible.  Only eight members of the team that lost to Essex at Hassocks in December were in the side so, perhaps not surprisingly, they suffered their heaviest defeat of the season.  Clearly the two defaults conceded in advance did not help the Sussex cause, but such is the strength of the Essex bottom boards that it seems unlikely that the overall score would have been affected.  The three draws that Sussex scored on the lower boards were impressuve, since here they were heavily outgraded by an average of 30 points.