Hadleigh & Thundersley got their promotion bid underway with an excellent six-wicket win at derby rivals Orsett.

Hadleigh won the toss and decided to bowl, and had their hosts all out for 252 off of 44.3 overs.

Orsett opener Philip Landman provided his side's stiffest resistance with a knock of 62 before he was caught by Dan Boughtwood off the bowling of overseas player Brent McMinn.

But it was Richard Revell who starred with the ball (4-40) for Hadleigh as he had fellow opener Ryan Plom out for a duck when caught by Joe Robbins, before taking the tail-end wickets of skipper Kevin Sargent, Shahid Khan and George Pavitt for the loss of just 32 runs.

And Aussie import McMinn followed up his wicket haul of 2-35, with an aggressive knock of 85 before he was caught by George Gibbon off George Pavitt.

And that combined with a tantalising 99 from opener Joe Robbins was enough to help them to a winning total of 254 with nine balls remaining.

It gave Hadleigh 20 points, and skipper Adam Fleming was delighted.

He said: "Our number one aim this season is to get promotion, whether that means winning the league or finishing second, so it has been nice to get off to a good start.

"At one stage against Orsett it looked like they were going to make 300, so it was good to see Richard Revell come in and restrict them a bit.

"And to be fair we knocked the runs off we needed pretty easily. Joe Robbins played a very responsible innings, and Brett scored quickly.

"It's early days but the signs are promising, and now we need to follow up with a good result against Hainault next week."