MICHAEL Gray admits Basildon & Pitsea’s defeat against follow strugglers Old Brentwoods was a big blow to their SNEL Division Two survival hopes.

A poor batting display resulted in a 142 run defeat.

And Gray said he needs to see more in the next two matches, against Wickford and Horndon-on-the-Hill.

“It was really disappointing,” he said. “We bowled and fielded OK and got a par score but we are not batting well enough.

“It is a blow and we are bottom now.

“We have Rob Davies back next week but we have to soldier on and do the best we can.”

Old Brentwoods made an excellent start to their innings, with only Kalim Khan going cheaply (20).

But Mohammad Amin (57) - one of four players to share the same name in the Brentwood team - and his namesake (74) took the game away from Basildon.

Brentwoods were 130 runs up before the second wicket fell, only for Shazad Khan to come in and score 58.

Raheel Ahmed contributed another half century (53) as Brentwoods totalled 297/6 in their 50 overs.

Gary Ayres took 2-25, with Liam Rouse 2-75.

Basildon needed a good start, and they made promising steps early on.

Ayres (14) and Phillip Tooke (24) took Basildon to 43 before the wickets started to fall at a regular rate.

Three wickets fell as Basildon added just eight more runs, with Steven Ayres going for a duck.

Darren Thompson hit 23 but Basildon did not have any batsmen who contributed a significant total, crumbling to 155 all out with more than 16 overs remaining.

Old Southendian & Southchurch were well beaten by league leaders Hainault & Clayhall.

The home side won the toss and it proved a good one to win as they built a huge total in their overs.

Hainault scored 388 runs for the loss of just five wickets in their 50 overs, despite losing one of their openers for a golden duck.

Southendian never looked like matching it, batting throughout their innings but striking just 221 runs, losing six wickets.

And captain Matt Wilson said, after a tough run of fixtures, he hopes to pick up some results now.

“They have some serious cricketers and have batted teams into submission,” he said. “The pitch was a road and it has been a tough couple of weeks.

“Tim Dennis bowled superbly for 4-66 in 10 overs but two of their batsmen put on a stand of 280.

“It wasn’t to be but we want to crack on now.”

Andrew McGarry top scored with 60 not out.

Wickford extended their unbeaten run to five matches as they beat Oakfield Parkonians by 136 runs.

Winning the toss, Wickford’s top order all contributed runs although none of them went on to reach a big score.

Gareth Wright (36) and Andy Baker (35) were the pick of the batsmen as Wickford totalled 241.

Oakfield scored just 105 all out, David Cole the pick of the bowlers with 3-18 in 8.2 overs.

Connor Etchells (2-28) and Chirag Desai (2-23) took two wickets each.

Horndon-on-the-Hill secured an outstanding victory to end their winless start to the season.

Tom Stone (97) inspired Horndon to 217, although they were still all out in 40.2 overs.

Loughton scored 142, with Jeff West’s stunning 7-34 helping Horndon climb off the bottom.