I’VE been enjoying a rare rest this week ahead of the championship clash against Kent.

It meant I missed the excitement of playing against the West Indies in the tour game, but we have a lot of cricket coming up and it seemed like the right time to sit a game out.

It had a slight back niggle too, and it wasn’t like the guys missed me too much, as we played the better cricket during the drawn match.

We played really well and, despite the Windies missing the likes of Chris Gayle and Fidel Edwards, all credit has to go to the lads.

Maurice Chambers continued his excellent form, while Mervyn Westfield and Jahid Ahmed also came in and impressed.

There is a lot of competition for places among the young bowlers at Essex. We have a number of them all vying for a place at the same time and bedding them into the team is a gradual process.

We hope they each play a few more matches year on year. At the moment it is Maurice who is a regular in the side, but it is up to them to displace the other bowlers.

We want a blend of youth and experience, but I can’t discount there being an occasion when I pick them all together as it is a long season.

Alastair Cook looked in fine form, although he was in a bit of pain in the first innings. It was good practice for him ahead of the Test series.

We bowled well and the pitch was helpful, but the West Indies are a half decent side, despite the players they were missing.

They were getting used to the conditions, and, looking around the counties, the England players are looking in good form.

Of course, we were unable to remove the unmovable Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

There was a moment when Maurice bowled one of their left-handers and it looked like it was Chanderpaul. The tannoy said it was, but then he came walking in to bat next – and didn’t get out.

Cookie told me before he went to the West Indies that he was prepared for some time in the dirt while Chanderpaul batted and batted and batted.

Some may have heard us belting out a choral delight after our victorious performances.

It is quite a raucous piece of music and was developed by our very own voice of an angel Cookie.

When he started playing for England he handed on the musical reins to me, and now I’m captain, I have passed them on to James Foster, who leads the way.

Matt Walker has certainly enjoyed singing it for the first few times and I hope he and the rest of us get the opportunity to make plenty of noise during the remainder of the season.

How does it go? I’m afraid I can’t tell you. Parts of it are probably not printable, but it is fair to say the opposition know they have been beaten.

Our superb performance at Bristol in the win over Gloucestershire gave us the perfect chance to sing loud and proud.

It was a low scoring game on a slightly helpful pitch, but at no point could Gloucestershire say they could just see one of our bowlers off.

Maurice came on and took wickets, as did Ryan ten Doeschate, who took eight in the match, and the pair gave the Gloucester batsmen as much trouble as our openers David Masters and Chris Wright.

Tendo is the perfect first-change bowler. He is a wicket-taker, who can swing it and bowl at a reasonable pace.

He is the one I turn to if I need a wicket and I enjoy captaining him because it is fun trying to work out the field placements.

He is the type of bowler who can go for a few runs, so it is a case of getting people in the right place so he doesn’t concede too many, but is still on the attack.

We made good work of our run chase and it could have been tricky on such a bowler-friendly wicket.