CAPTAIN Jake Wakelin is backing Witham Cricket Club "100 per cent" to bounce back positively after seeing a long winning run ended in division one of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship.

Stretching back to the middle of last season, Witham had strung together a run of 13 wins in the top-flight and after the frustration of back-to-back abandoned fixtures due to wet weather, they saw their sequence of success broken by a 39-run defeat by Hadleigh last weekend.

The loss came as Witham's batting line-up uncharacteristically failed to fire and they were unable to chase down Hadleigh's total of 222.

It led to an unfamiliar situation for them, but Wakelin knows there is too much quality within his side for them not to bounce back and is looking for that to happen quickly, starting with a home game against Halstead on Saturday.

Wakelin said: "The run did have to come to an end at some point and that's unfortunate; especially now because, if we'd won, we'd have been the only side unbeaten in the league, but it's still early in the season and there's plenty of time to put it right.

"I 100 percent expect a positive response this weekend.

"We are all disappointed by the result and we can't dwell on it as we want to rectify it by winning our next game."

Witham had Greg Stephens and Ken McClure taking two wickets apiece as they restricted Hadleigh to 222.

It was a score they felt capable of chasing down and opening duo Michael Godwin and James Suett got them off to a good start by making 49 and 46 respectively at the top of the order, however, no-one else was able to post a big score and Witham went from 115 for one to 183 all out.

Wakelin added: "We knew that there would come a time after 13 games winning back-to-back that we would come unstuck, but it was still a disappointing result.

"We did not think 222 was a big score and we got off to a good start, but we had a bad ten to 15 overs when we went from 115 for one to 135 for five.

"Those 15 overs ruined us really and that was very disappointing.

"We had bowled and fielded quite well and felt 222 was a bit below par, but unfortunately no-one in our middle order pushed on to get us over the line.

"It was a good wicket but no-one really took responsibility with the bat.

"One of their lads posted an 83 and that was the difference, but at the end of the day, we are all just club cricketers and no team has gone through an entire season unbeaten.

"Maybe this will give us a kick up the backside and I know we will get back on it."

Witham came into the game on the back of having no action during the preceding two weeks and that has not helped their batsmen find form in the opening part of the season.

A truncated innings in their rained-off game against Wivenhoe, getting just two overs played against Worlington on another soggy day and only three batsmen seeing action in the nine-wicket win against Maldon has meant time in the middle has been precious for Witham's batsmen.

"People may forget that we won the first game against Mistley, but we beat Maldon losing just one wicket and then had two games off," said Wakelin.

"That's meant that five weeks into the season and we've got players who have had very little time in the middle.

"That's been unfortunate, but we are big enough and ugly enough to handle that."

Wakelin said he expected Carl Bragg to be unavailable for the game against Halstead o Saturday.