Braintree Cricket Club are hitting form at just the right time in the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship season.

The Panfield Lane side have their sights set on promotion from division two this year and a six-wicket win against local rivals Halstead last weekend showed the strength they have heading into the second half of the season.

Weather has been Braintree’s main enemy during the opening part of the season and having a number of games rained-off has kept them off the pace at the very top of the table.

But they are now putting the sqeeze on the front-runners and will head to Dunmow for another derby encounter on Saturday hoping to further their promotion hopes even more.

Vice-captain Will Jackson, who skippered the side to victory at Halstead, said: “Halstead are a very strong side who were in the East Anglian Premier League a couple of years ago and we hadn’t beaten them in a first-team fixture for about 15 years.

“So this was a huge win for Braintree and shows where we are at the moment."

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