CAPTAIN Jake Wakelin believes this weekend's Witham Cricket Club line-up could be the strongest that he has seen during his time with the club.

Witham have enjoyed an excellent start to the season and sit atop the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one table after a perfect opening to the 2018 campaign.

They continued their winning start with a dominant 94-run victory against Coggeshall last weekend and will look to extend that when they travel to reigning champions Elmstead on Saturday.

While the current division one holders have lost the opening two games of their title defence, Wakelin knows it won't be easy for his buoyant side, but he is expecting a strong Witham line-up to head to Vicarage Meadow.

He said: "The way it is looking, I think this weekend's line-up could be the strongest that I have seen since I've been playing here.

"We have Leroy Facey, who I believe is one of the best all-rounders in the league, and Greg Stephens, who is one of the best spinners in the league in my opinion, both coming back in and selection is going to be very difficult.

"We have had good sides in the past, but the strength in depth we now have is pretty impressive.

"It's a headache, but a good one and you have to go with what you consider is your best side as it's going to be tough at Elmstead.

"There was a reason why they won the league last year - you don't win it by luck.

"They were the best side and although they haven't made the best start this year, I'm sure they are raring to get back to winning ways.

"They will look at this game against us as one where they can get it started, so we can't take anything for granted."

The win against Coggeshall ensured Witham would head to the champions with an unblemished record so far and Wakelin felt it was a win that was established thanks to a strong batting performance.

While their 218 total wasn't the biggest, the skipper knew it was competitive on a difficult wicket and gave their bowlers a chance to keep the pressure on Coggeshall.

Overseas player Forster Mutizwa top-scored with 75 and gave a strong platform to Witham's innings at the top of the order along with Michael Godwin, who made a solid 45, before contributions from James Suett, James Smith and Simon Jones took them up to a competitive total.

And three wickets apiece for Shaun Bragg and Carl Bragg then turned the screw on the visitors, who fell 94 runs short of their target.

Wakelin added: "It was another all-round team performance.

"We won the toss and batted first, put a decent score on the board and then the bowlers came in and completed the job.

"Forster batted brilliantly alongside Michael Godwin and they laid the foundations so Jim Suett, Simon Jones and James Smith could come in and score quickly.

"We knew it wasn't a massive score, but the wicket was low, slow and was taking spin so we knew it was good enough if we bowled well.

"Shaun took three wickets at the top of Coggeshall's order and then the spinners kept things tight and Carl Bragg took three late wickets so it was a good team performance."