Braintree Cricket Club captain Will Jackson said his team felt at home as they made their belated return to the top-flight of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship.

Having had their opening game of the season cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch, Braintree, who went up as division two champions last year, got their division one season going at Wivenhoe last week.

It wasn’t the win they were after as they lost by 42 runs at Rectory Road, but Jackson said there were positives to take.

He said: “Obviously, we’re disappointed not to get the result we wanted but we gave it a good stab.

“We kept them to 200, which from 50 overs wasn’t bad, and that gave us a realistic chance to chase, but we lost quick wickets to their overseas player in a good spell.

“Josh Newman hit 49 and Dan Garner 47 at the end in a decent rearguard action that got us up to 150, but it was just that early spell from their overseas player that hurt us and we need to learn from that.

“However, no way were we out-classed and we never felt like we didn’t belong there.

“It was just learning to deal with a good player who was having his day with the ball. but we were not in awe at all and we felt on par with them.

“There were a lot of positives, not least the good amount of losing bonus points that we took.”

Braintree now face Mildenhall at home today, but Garner will captain the team as Jackson is set for six to eight weeks on the sidelines with a broken wrist.

The skipper added: “I did it while fielding at cover and it didn’t feel too good, but I went in to bat and I think I aggravated it then.

"It’s a kick in the teeth as I’ll be out for up to eight weeks, but we have Dan Garner as captain and should have Steve Hale coming in and Ben Golds is also back at the weekend so we have experience in depth in the squad.”