CRICKET Club captain Jake Wakelin sees no reason why his team should not target the top end of Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one after seeing the "Witham of old" return in their last two games.

Wakelin was pleased to see his team back up their comprehensive derby win at Braintree the week before with a nine-wicket demolition of Haverhill and he feels the swagger that took Witham to back-to-back top-three finishes in the last few years can return now.

It has been an up and down season for the side so far, but Wakelin is confident that they can now target the upper end of the division one table.

He said: "It was a bit of the Witham of old come back at Haverhill.

"We took early wickets, sniffed blood and everyone pitched in.

"The only thing that looked like stopping us was the rain but that didn't intervene too much and it really was like the Witham of old.

"The last two weeks have shown that when there is an opportunity and we have the opposition down, we have kept them down."

Although Haverhill made a steady enough start and got to 38 without losing a wicket, three fell with no further runs added and they were only able to post a total of 109.

Shaun Bragg, who was the previous week's bowling hero with five wickets at Braintree, claimed three for 20 this time and Matt Anderson returned figures of four for four to mop up the Haverhill tail, although Wakelin said it was a good all-round bowling and fielding performance.

And the hosts' total proved utterly inadequate as the Witham batsmen went about their task with relish and chased it down inside 19 overs for a speedy conclusion.

Wakelin added: "That's three out of the last four that we have won as we've beaten Wivenhoe, then Braintree and now Haverhill and even the game that we lost - against Woolpit - we felt we should have got something from it.

"So we are really looking up the table now.

"There are only 12 points separating us and Maldon in fifth now and I know we have match-winners in our team.

"The next couple of games are tough but we just have to keep doing what we have recently."

The next test for Witham is a home game against Halstead on Saturday.

Wakelin said his two main wicket takers from last weekend - Bragg and Anderson - would be unavailable, however, spinner Jack Sambrook is set to return and Kaan Hawes could come back in for his first appearance of the year.