BRAINTREE Cricket Club returned home from Halstead with their first Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one away win of the season.

Dan Garner won the toss and put Halstead in to bat on a green strip and in overcast and muggy conditions, the home side found it difficult to score runs against the opening pace of Quincy Titterton and Josh Newman.

Olly Grayson (9) in particular struggled against his former club and was first to fall with the score on 49 as Dave Hale snapped up a chance off the bowling of Garner.

Charlie Douglas-Hughes found things a little more comfortable, accumulating 39 before Steve Hale tempted him into a mistimed shot that found the hands of Robbie Spalding in the deep.

Josh Wells (16) and Zimbabwean Larvet Masunda (40) found things easier as the sun broke through until Steve Hale found a fine edge of the former and Warren Celiz took the catch.

Spalding was brought into the attack and he soon beat Masunda all ends up and had him clean bowled.

Veteran, Neal Dakin began to push the score along, however, Dean Bass caught him in two minds and trapped him LBW for 23.

Harry Veal (52) and Mark Johnson (18) played some excellent shots to put on 55 for the sixth wicket, but Garner opted to bring back the opening pair and was duly rewarded as Titterton bowled Veal and Newman had Johnson caught by the skipper.

Bass and Titterton cleaned up the tail and Halstead’s innings ended with 220 runs on the board.

In reply, the in-form pairing of Chris Leech and Dean Bass got Braintree off to another good start, once again finding the boundary at least once an over and putting on 92 for the first wicket.

David Elsbury tempted Bass (48) pushing forward and Masada took the catch behind the stumps, but Celiz added 26 runs in quick time before he was caught.

Garner departed quickly and after Leech brought up his 50 with a towering six, he was also out with Braintree requiring 50 runs with 14 overs and six wickets in hand.

However, Halstead weren’t dead and buried yet as Rory Ainsley (32), Dan Chalk (4), Titterton (2) and Newman (9) all departed in a short period of time so when Dave Hale was joined at the crease by his brother Steve, Braintree were still 21 short of their target.

The pairing was just what was needed, though, and the old heads saw them home without any further mishaps.

Braintree captain Will Jackson, who is sidelined by a wrist injury at the moment, said: "This win was different from the one in the game before as we bowled first and had to chase a score down.

"It can be tough if you lose early wickets, but we had an opening partnership of 90 with Chris Leech getting 50 and Dean Bass falling just short of his half-century this time.

"It gave the rest of the team something solid to build from.

"There was a late flurry of wickets which almost cost us, but the experienced heads of the Hale brothers saw us home."

Braintree entertain Mistley on Saturday.