Heavy rain throughout the morning put paid to any hopes that Essex held of beating fellow promotion aspirants Somerset at Taunton yesterday leaving the match abandoned as a draw.
There were pools of water over the outfield at the scheduled start time of 11am and with the rain continuing unrelentingly, it was the most straightforward decisions for umpires Roy Palmer and Nick Cook to abandon all hope of a resumption with the formal call-off came at 1.40 pm.
Despite the disappointment of the draw, the visitors though did reduce the points deficit to 31 points and the division two leaders after collecting nine points from the match, while their opponents took seven points.
Somerset still have to play second-placed Nottinghamshire twice and must also travel to Chelmsford for the return with Somerset and the second division promotion race therefore remains very much open.
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