Paul Bellehewe was Witham Cricket Club’s five-wicket hero as they maintained their superb start to their division two campaign in the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship.

Despite heavy rain all week and every other Two Counties game taking place in Essex getting called off, the Witham ground staff did a tremendous job in preparing The Park wicket and the team duly obliged with a disciplined performance.

In claiming his first five-for in several seasons, the experienced Bellehewe ripped out Brightlingsea’s entire top order on the way to his team’s nine-wicket win.

It backed up their eight-wicket win against Dunmow on the opening day of the season and, with some teams failing to get any action so far this season due to the wet weather, has put Witham in a healthy position at the top of the division two table.

Bellehewe said: “It has been a really good start for us, especially as we still have some players to come back from university.

“It was always going to be important to make a good start to the season and once we knew we were going to be able to play on Saturday, we knew we had to win.

“Everyone rose to the challenge and ground it out with the right attitude."

Witham are due to travel to Easton on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Braintree are still to complete a game in division two this year after seeing their match against Dunmow fall victim to the weather last weekend.

Braintree are due to head to Brockley on Saturday.