Benfleet continued their unbeaten start to the season and ended Billericay’s 100 per cent record in the process.

The battle of the top two at the Toby Howe Ground saw the Benfleet visitors put into bat.

Andy Prophet (12) and Ray Gipson (18) made early progress but Sean Pritchard (47) and Australian overseas player Emmanuel Parmakellis (35) anchored the innings batting at six and eight respectively.

Benfleet finished on 171-9 from their 50 overs as Billericay’s New Zealand overseas player Charlie Crassbourne took 2-29, Philip Reynolds 2-29 and Stuart Hynes (2-12). The hosts’ reply got off to a poor start before skipper Stewart Rutland hit 38 batting at five.

But Gary Hynes (16) was the only lower order batsman to prosper as Billericay were bowled out for 103 in 28.3 overs, with Chris Coldicott (4-25) and Robert Parmenter (2-17) leading the attack.

“It was a great result and we are pleased to come away with a win as it did not look like that would be the case when we were batting,” said Benfleet skipper Paul Tremain. “It was definitely a day for bowling and there was a bit in the pitch for the bowlers.

“Our top order did not fire again and some poor side is going to be in for it when they come into form.

“But Sean Prichard is batting really well at the moment and that’s enabled us to have depth.

“Emmanual is getting used to English cricket. He bowled the best he has done for us against Billericay, without getting results, although there were a couple of dropped catches.

“We stumbled with the bat, although I think it was an OK score. We thought 250 would be a par score before the game but we got nowhere near that.

“But we showed the right attitude and attacked from the start and bowled well.”

Billericay skipper Stewart Rutland said: “We bowled really well to keep them to 170 but then we just batted poorly.

“It was one of those games were we will look back and think we probably should have won. It was just one of those days when it was a bad day at the office.

“We are not going to play brilliantly every week and unfortunately things did not click.

“It’s disappointing to lose the unbeaten record but at least we have made a good start to the season and will be there or there abouts at the end of the 50-over games.”

Basildon & Pitsea bounced back from their only defeat of the season last week against Benfleet to record a 181-run win over visitors Woodford Green.

The visitors put their Mopsies Park hosts into bat and saw them plunder 302-5 from their 50 overs.

The highlight was an unbeaten 92 from Scott Noble, but there were decent knocks too from Jamie White (52), Liam Rouse (54) and Michael Gray (35) as the Basildon batsmen feasted on an attack led by David Hawkes (2-81).

Woodford Green were bowled out for 121 in 31.5 overs with Anthony Palmer (45) offering most resistance.

The visitors were ripped apart by Lee Lewis, who took 5-17 from his 10 overs, eight of which were maidens, while Ben Munday claimed 4-43 from eight overs, two of them maidens, and Luke Daw took 1-7 from 11 deliveries.

“It was a fantastic result after losing last week to Benfleet. We spoke as a team about our fielding and batting during the week and I’m pleased with the response.

“Three hundred was a total that we knew we could defend and Scott batted superbly. He set his stall out to bat all day and the others batted around him.

“We knew 302 was always going to be a big total but we were determined not to let them get anywhere close to that. We bowled and fielded superbly and getting them out for 121 was another good effort. We could have got sloppy but the way we handled it was superb.

“Lee bowled really well and the 17 runs he conceded came off two overs as he bowled eight maidens. We bowled consistently and we made sure if they wanted to win, they had to play shots, so we were professional in our approach.”

Belhus welcomed West Essex to the village green but saw their visitors win by four wickets.

The hosts were put in and made a strong start through Gavin Jefferies (51), Joe Joyce (50), Martin Guilbert (32), Danny Joyce (29) and skipper Wayne Read (10).

But then a batting collapse saw just 13 runs added as Belhus were bowled out for 195 as Zohair Jan (3-52), Neil Dial (3-43) and ZA Nazir (2-19) struck.

Zia Anwar (54) and Teepo Afzal (39) provided early resistance but Julian Joy (18no) and Gareth Jenkins (28no) saw West Essex to 196-6 with two overs to spare as Connor Day, Billy Winter, Guilbert and Danny Joyce took a wicket each.

“It was a decent game and they played really well,” said Belhus captain Wayne Read.

“I think that if we had scored 220 it might have won us the game. Everyone went in trying to whack it and we were bowled out with an over to go.

“We pinned West Essex back in the middle but then they got on top and they did not want to give it away. But Billy Winter bowled well in the middle for us.

“It was a bit of a slow start with bat for us and on another day 196 would have been good enough, but they batted well.”