A SUPERB century from Michael Godwin and a six-wicket haul from Ken McClure made sure that Witham Cricket Club stayed in pole position for a debut Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship title.

With just two games of the season to go, Witham are still leading the way in division one after a dominant performance against Woolpit in their latest outing.

Witham won by 146 runs to pick up 20 points that kept them 13 clear of second-placed Wivenhoe with just 40 now up for grabs in the final two games of the season.

This latest success extended Witham's winning run to 13 games and was built on the back of a resounding batting display.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, Ken McClure and Godwin gave Witham a solid start and moved to 49 before McClure departed for 39. but the Kiwi's opening partner stayed at the crease and kept the scoreboard ticking over.

Godwin was joined first by James Smith, who made 21, and then Leroy Facey for the innings' defining partnership as the Woolpit bowlers were made to toil.

Facey struck 74 in a third-wicket partnership of 128 that took the Witham score on to 225 before he was stumped off the bowling of Chris Wells, however, Godwin continued to punish the visiting bowling attack.

With other Witham batsmen adding support, Godwin carried on to record his third century of the season before finally being out for 110 as the hosts concluded their 50 overs on 265 for five.

Witham captain Jake Wakelin said: "It was another pretty dominant performance set up brilliantly by a great knock from Michael Godwin. "It was his third century of the season and good to see as he had been a bit quiet in the last couple of games.

"But this was a brilliant innings, supported by Leroy Facey, who had been moved up the order.

"We know how good Leroy is and he did a great job in making 74, while others chipped in to get us up to a really good score.

"It was a good wicket and decent outfield and we made good use of it because we felt 265 was probably 20 to 30 runs above a par scored. "We were really happy with that and we knew it would be a defendable total with the bowling attack that we have, which proved to be the case."

Like Witham, Woolpit also made a solid start to their reply and were past 50 before Ollie Cooke caught James Deeley off the bowling of Shaun Bragg.

Once into the visitors' batting order, though, Witham's spinners quickly turned the screw, with Wakelin picking up one for 14 and Greg Stephens taking two for 18.

However, the biggest damage was done by McClure as he ripped through Woolpit's middle and lower order to record impressive figures of six for 11 from 8.2 overs as the visitors were all out for 119 in the 35th over.

Wakelin added: "Woolpit got off to an OK start as our discipline wasn't as good as it normally is, but we soon got going and put them under pressure.

"We then had Ken McClure taking six for 11 in eight overs and that meant there was no doubt over the result.

"It was a fantastic performance from someone who is only really our fourth go-to spinner and I think that just shows th edepth of talent we have at the cricket club.

"We showed the depth in our batting and then in our bowling and it was another one ticked off."