BASILDON & Pitsea moved up to second in the Division Three table with a 95-run win over 10-man West Essex.

Rob Davies (59) and Kalai Selven (24) anchored the early Basildon innings after Paul Singleton went for a duck.

Three wickets fell for nine runs but Phillip Tooke came in at seven and added 49 runs, while Tom Poole contributed a useful 30 and Dean Bedford 12 before the visitors were bowled out for 206 in 40 overs, with Sajid Mehmood (3-29) and Ali Raza (3-43) claiming most wickets.

But any hopes West Essex had of securing a win quickly evaporated as Dean Bedford (6-43), Liam Rouse (2-14) and Ben Munday (1-44) shared the wickets among them.

Zia Anwar (21) and Nomaan Shah (20) fared best with the bat as West Essex were bowled out for 111-9

"To lose to Old Brentwoods on the first day of the season was disappointing but we're playing well at the moment and have had back-to-back wins," said captain Michael Gray.

"We lost a few wickets but Rob and Phil batted well and then Dean bowled well and we held our catches.

"We thought getting over 200 was always a decent score and playing against 10 player also helped."

Westcliff-on-Sea skipper Chris Gladwin called on his team to find their killer instinct ahead of their match with Epping and they did just that with a convincing eight-wicket victory that moved them up to third.

Nigel Holmes (4-18), Alex Hatton (3-41) and John Stanley (3-67) did the damage with the ball to restrict their visitors to 176 all out in 46 overs.

Epping opener Amir Khan led the way with 45 and wicketkeeper Ramiz Miah hit 37.

But only one of the lower order batsmen got into double figures as Hatton and Holmes polished them off.

Westcliff openers Peter Barnes (74) and Jack Stead (33) made inroads into the target and Sam Weller (47no) and Matt Renvoize (12no) saw the Chalkwell Park side across the victory line.

"It really was the perfect day for us," said Gladwin, "Stanley, Holmes and Hatton all bowled really well and we kept it tidy in their innings.

"I said to them in the changing room that I didn't want to lose more than two wickets. Stead went to a bad lbw decision and there's nothing you can do about that, but Barnes carried his bat well."

Stanford-le-Hope suffered a six-wicket defeat at Old Brentwoods to leave them seventh in the table.

The visitors were bowled out for 162 in 50 overs with Robert Page top-scoring with 45 runs.

Thomas Willats (20), Jack Carter (18) and Martin Leslie (17) chipped in against an attack led by K Sarwar (3-33).

Stanford made a good start with the ball claiming the opening batsmen cheaply, but that brought Wade Canham (62) and Baber Choudhary (61) to the crease and they set up the win.

Despite Adam Knight taking 2-33 and Greg Barr and Matthew Higgins getting a wicket each, Rajinish Dohal and Sarwar were unbeaten as they secured a winning 166-4 in 25.1 overs.

Stanford skipper Matthew Page said the fact it started raining as his team took to the field did not help matters but he's not too disappointed with the start to their season following relegation last year.

"We've made an average start to the season with a good home win and a couple of away defeats," he said.

"Unfortunately we haven't got an overseas player this year and we are a little bit short of numbers but hopefully by the middle of the season we should be up and running properly.

"The aim is to be promoted but we have some young players so the important thing is to bring them through.

"We are going to be positive in our approach and I'm not downhearted with how things are going."

Benfleet arrested their losing streak with a draw at home to Walthamstow.

The visitors declared on 220-6 after 50 overs and were indebted to Ayaz Shah, who posted an unbeaten 127.

Ashley Leat (36) was the next biggest contributor as Paul Frensham took 4-52 and Chris Coldicott and Gareth Steed a wicket each.

Joshua Brady (34), Stephen Reeve (23), skipper Gavin Blowes (11) and Rob Zammit (19) kept the scoreboard ticking over and there were contributions of 19 not out and 14 from Jack Scarff and Samuel Coelho further down the order as Benfleet reached 138-8 in 46 overs of their reply.

"After two defeats we're quite happy to get a draw under our belts," said Blowes.

"We bowled well and thought 220 on that deck was a bit below par. I mixed up the batting order to try to get something working after the previous games.

"But our main batsmen were all out for 30 and I though we were going to have another batting collapse, but Jack Scarff batted really well and we batted out for the draw."