CAPTAIN Josh Wells wants to see more consistency in his team's performances as Halstead Cricket Club head into the second half of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship campaign.

Halstead start the second part of their fixture list with a trip to division one leaders Mildenhall and go into that game sitting fifth in the top-flight table at the midpoint of the season.

Contrast that position to where they were at the same stage 12 months previously, when Halstead were engaged in a fight to avoid relegation, and it's clear that they have made good progress this year.

There have been encouraging performances, but there have also been disappointments like the defeats by Haverhill and Braintree and Wells wants to see more consistency in the second part of the season.

He said: "Looking at results and our performances, I think it's clear to see that we can beat anyone in the league, but it's just making sure that we get things right every week rather than having ups and downs.

"We have tended to give away silly results but we need consistency.

"We beat Mildenhall last year and it's the type of game where we'll go and play well against a team who are doing well this year, but we then rock up at places like Haverhill and under-perform.

"It's about getting the consistency of performance and putting blocks of strong results together.

"We need to get that real block of results, because we have had good results and then made silly mistakes and that has cost us.

"But we are definitely improving and anyone who has been watching us will have seen that.

"We are a better side now than we were last year and in a better position - I'm delighted to be top-five at the halfway stage - but there is still a little way to go.

"If we continue to improve then we have a really good young side who I believe can be challenging at the top in coming years."

However, part of that improvement needs to come quickly tomorrow when Halstead travel to Mildenhall after poor batting performances in their last two games.

They have scored just 94 in both of their previous two outings and while it led to defeat against Worlington two weeks ago, the weather intervened at Wivenhoe last weekend.

Having been bowled out for less than 100 again, Wivenhoe were just one ball into their innings when rain called a halt to proceedings and Halstead escaped with a third no result of the campaign and seven points.

Wells added: "You could say the rain helped us out somewhat as we didn't bat well on a pitch that was fine.

"Wivenhoe bowled well and took their chances and it was harsh on them not to get the 20 points.

"Getting two scores only in the 90s is not too sharp on our part and disappointing as generally our scoring hasn't been too bad."

Wells said he expected Charlie Douglas-Hughes to be unavailable for the trip to Mildenhall, but Chris Roper, Dave Elsbury and Goush Raviendran would all be available.