BASILDON & Pitsea bounced back from their opening day Division Three defeat to beat Westcliff on Sea by six runs at Mopsies Park.

Things looked grim for the hosts when only three batsmen got into double figures as they were dismissed for 166 in 41.1 overs.

Rob Davies hit an early 47 and skipper Liam Rouse 35 in the middle order, while Phillip Tooke top-scored with 54 batting at eight.

Nigel Holmes led the Westcliff attack with 4-62 and Graham Cox claimed 3-26, with Alex Hatton taking 2-31 and Tom Baker 1-30.

Peter Barnes was out first ball for Westcliff but Matt Renvoize steadied the ship with 36 and wicketkeeper Lewis Groves contributed 38 in the middle order.

Graham Cox (27) and Shahbaz Sattar (8) looked to be heading Westcliff to victory until the latter was bowled by Liam Rouse to leave the visitors all out for 160 in 48.4 overs.

Gary Ayres led the Basildon attack with 4-27, while Ben Munday claimed 3-38, Rouse 2-16 and Jack Farrington 1-11.

The result left Westcliff in eighth place in the early Division Three table.

Westcliff skipper Chris Gladwin said: "After bowling them out for 166 and knowing we would get 53 overs back I knew we just needed someone to bat through and we would get the win.

"Three of them batted brilliantly for the 30s but then they got out and things just went away from us.

"That was just a lack of experience and it's still a learning curve because it's a young team.

"We were hoping to get another win but it wasn't to be, but it's still early days."

Stanford-le-Hope are sixth in the standings following their nine-wicket demolition of basement club Benfleet.

Stanford shared the wickets among their bowlers as they had their visitors all back in the pavilion for 64 runs in 24.2 overs.

Chris Coldicott, batting at eight, fared best with the bat for Benfleet as he scored 17 runs before being out lbw off a James Drain delivery.

But he was the only visiting batsman to get into double figures as Stanford, who were relegated from Division Two last season, put them to the sword.

Greg Barr took 3-17, while there were braces for Drain (2-15) and Matthew Higgins (2-18). Jack Carter took 1-8 and two run outs accounted for the other Benfleet wickets.

Michael Gray hit and unbeaten 23 for Stanford, and although top-scorer Martin Leslie was caught and bowled by Callum Wheeler for 32, Thomas Willats helped Stanford over the line with an unbeaten eight as they replied with 66-1 in 18 overs.