HADLEIGH & Thundersley continued their unbeaten start to the season with a thrilling two run win at Billericay.

Hadleigh have now triumphed in their opening two matches of the Premier Division campaign.

And skipper Adam Dobson was delighted to make it back to back victories in exciting fashion.

“It was a great game and to come away with a close win like that early on in the season makes it even better,” said Dobson.

“I was really proud of how the boys defended the total we posted, everyone knew their job and stayed calm under pressure.”

Hadleigh batted first at Blunts Wall and recorded 182/8 in their 30 overs.

Opening batsman Darius Vapiwala top scored with 43 while Adam Soilleux added 38 and Samuel Handley 35.

Andy Smith took two wickets for 31 runs to be the pick of Billericay’s bowlers before his side fell agonisingly short of the required total in their own innings.

Aron Nijjar opened for Billericay and top scored with 77 but when he was dismissed the hosts found themselves 114/4.

That became 139/5 when Ross Poulton was dismissed for 12 but Billericay continue to rally with David Houghton and Andy Smith at the crease.

Houghton ended on 37 not out while Smith was also unbeaten on 25 but they fell just short of seeing their side home.

Louis Poynter and Handley both took 2/37 for Hadleigh, much to the relief of their captain Dobson who is now keen to build on the win.

“We’ve obviously got off to the perfect start with two wins and we want to build on that next week,” said Dobson.

“We will take each game as it comes. But we know we have the quality to challenge the big boys in the league and hopefully we will better our fourth place finish from a few years ago.”

Hadleigh are second in the early standings, level on points with table-topping Chelmsford and third placed Wanstead & Snaresbrook.

In contrast, Billericay are eighth in the 10 team table and face a tough looking task this weekend as they head to Wanstead while Hadleigh host seventh placed Belhus.

In Division One on Saturday, Old Southendian & Southchurch saw off Ilford by seven runs. Old Southendian made 189/8 with Ahsan Yousaf top scoring with 73.

In reply, Ilford were bowled out for 182 with Sandeep Muraleedharan taking 3/15.