BENFLEET fell to an eight-wicket defeat to Harlow Town as they got their Third Division season underway.

Samuel Coelho impressed with the bat, but a total of 211/9 proved to be short of what was required.

And Benfleet captain Gavin Blowes was disappointed to come away on the losing side.

Blowes said: “We lost the toss, which wasn’t ideal because we wanted to put them in to bat but we got off to a good start.

“Samuel and Jamie Critchell put on 50 for the first wicket. We have had three games now including pre-season and they have scored 50 between them in each of them.

“I felt we were 60 or 70 runs short of where we needed to be.”

Critchell was dismissed after a promising start for the visitors, before Blowes also forged a good partnership with Coelho.

Blowes fell to Shaun Anderson, who took four wickets, for 25 runs.

Stephen Reeve and Ben Munday left the crease on 10 each, while Rob Zammit was out on two.

Coelho was finally out after amassing 86 runs, before Oliver Kersley and Muhammad Asif put up a fight with the bat.

But Harlow Town got to the required target for the loss of just two wickets, leaving Blowes to rue poor bowling.

“We bowled poorly and gave them a lot of half-volleys,” added the Benfleet skipper.

“I will be looking for a reaction in our first home game of the season against Walthamstow.”

Meanwhile, Westcliff secured an eight-wicket win over Ardleigh Green.

Westcliff’s bowlers performed particularly well, with Ardleigh Green’s highest run scorer only adding 22 to the total.

While Jonathan Pratt and Peter Barnes were out for 27 and nine respectively, Matt Renvoize finished the Westcliff innings on 60 not out to help the visitors reach the target of 118 within 31 overs.

Leigh beat West Essex by 125 runs, with batsman Dean Waller being the star of the show.

Waller was on 156 not out when the hosts declared on 297/3.

Paul Humphries, Matthew Curtis and Theodore Poley all took two wickets each as West Essex were all out for 172.

Stanford le Hope claimed a six-wicket win over Epping to get their season off to a triumphant start, with Matthew Higgins finishing with figures of 5-43 as Epping were all out for 154.

Martin Leslie fell one short of his half century, but the home side reached 160 runs for the loss of just four wickets to notch the win.