CHRIS Silverwood has said he will do his best to take in the atmosphere at Castle Park, although says Essex are more than aware of the stakes ahead of the County Championship game with Sussex.

The four-day match starts today, with Essex playing their annual home fixture away from Chelmsford in the leafy surroundings of Colchester, as the race for promotion hots up in the closing months of the season.

Essex have lost two of their last three Championship matches, yet still sit on top of the table, albeit with a significantly reduced advantage and with four other counties within striking distance.

Head coach Chris Silverwood is only too aware that it has suddenly become very tight in the chase for the one promotion place, but is excited at the prospect of playing this one-off game at Castle Park.

“It’s a really lovely place,” says the Yorkshireman, who has attended every year since joining the county in 2010. “It’s got a great atmosphere. The family come to watch cricket there, you can walk around, the kids play cricket round the back.

“It’s more of a festival atmosphere. You get marquees set up round the ground, people sit outside watching the cricket, enjoying a glass of wine and the food, and everything is a bit closer.

“When you’re playing at these outgrounds you’re standing on the boundary rope and people are talking to you, so it brings the crowd closer and creates a really nice atmosphere.”

Silverwood, 41, played for Yorkshire and Middlesex in a career that included six Test appearances and seven in one-day internationals, and turned out not only at cricket’s cathedrals of Headingley and Lord’s, but at festival grounds like Scarborough, Harrogate, Sheffield Collegiate, Middlesbrough, Bradford, Uxbridge and Radlett.

And Silverwood says he knows the sort of challenges the pitch at the Colchester Ground will pose.

“Castle Park usually produces a very competitive game of cricket. It has taken spin in the past, but I wouldn’t say massively. We’ll cover all bowling options, anyway.”

Essex arrive in the north of the county having qualified for the quarter-finals of both white-ball competitions, and face Nottinghamshire in the NatWest T20 Blast at Trent Bridge on Monday. Silverwood is confident the players won’t be sidetracked.

“We’re just thankful that we’re still in all three competitions and competing,” he says. “There’s a lot of excitement in the camp.

“The boys have done superbly up to now. But they’re under no illusions that it will be a tough run-in and they’ll need to get their heads down to get their reward.”