WITHAM Cricket Club captain Jake Wakelin was quick to hail the bowling heroics of Greg Stephens as his team bounced straight back to form in Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one.

Having suffered the setback of their first defeat of the season the week before at Woolpit, Witham responded superbly as they secured a comprehensive win against last year's runners-up Wivenhoe.

It was a win that saw half centuries from Wakelin and Forster Mutizwa, but the spin of Stephens lit up the scorecard, especially a hat-trick that ripped the heart out of Wivenhoe's batting line-up and Wakelin said it was one of the best spells of bowling that he had witnessed.

Wakelin said: "We swapped it around a bit at the top of the order with James Smith coming in to open rather than me and he and Michael (Godwin) gave us a good start.

"Then myself and Forster (Mutizwa) came in and we had a partnership of 120-odd as I got 78 and Forster got 60.

"We just took our time and batted sensibly and at one stage it looked as though we'd get over 250.

"We didn't quite get there, which was a bit disappointing, but 235 proved to be plenty in the end.

"Carl Bragg bowled very well at the start of Wivenhoe's innings with the new ball and then Greg Stephens bowled one of the best five-over spells I've seen.

"He took four wickets, including a hat-trick and when you're getting Wivenhoe's number three, their overseas player and their number five in successive balls then that's a pretty good hat-trick to take.

"We were always on top from that point on and I got two wickets and Simon Jones got three.

"We just contained them throughout, but once Greg got that hat-trick, it was game over.

"It was a really good response from the boys - it was another all-round effort from the team.

"It was just what we needed - a convincing win against a good Wivenhoe side.

"There are still improvements that need to be made but it was a good solid performance.

"We should have scored 20 to 30 runs more than we did and that's something to think about, but with hindsight, it was enough with the bowlers that we have.

"But while there were some standout individual displays, I was pleased to see the team performance against a Wivenhoe team who have been up there and are a good side."

Witham face another test this weekend as they head to early-season pacesetters Worlington on Saturday and although they are set travel with a few players missing, including the skipper, Wakelin is confident they will have enough to get another positive result.

He added: "We've never got too far ahead of ourselves, but we were disappointed to lose against Woolpit and we wanted to put it right against Wivenhoe.

"You want to win every week and we knew we had to perform ahead of what is going to be another big one this weekend at Worlington.

"We will have myself, Kaan Hawes and Pete Austin missing again, though, and it's just unfortunate that against two of the top sides - Woolpit and Worlington - we'll have had people missing.

"However, we have Jim Suett and Shaun Bragg coming back in and we'll have people like James Smith, Michael Godwin, Forster (Mutizwa), Greg Stephens and Matt McKendry so there's no reason why the boys shouldn't go there with confidence.

"We will have people coming back in with a point to prove and I have no doubt that the boys can do well.

"It's not a be-all and end-all game and Worlington will slip up this year, but it will be good to go there and win and I know if we play our cricket to our best then we can win."