HALSTEAD Cricket Club captain Josh Wells admitted that it was a relief to see his team secure their Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship top-flight status ahead of their final outing of a tough campaign.

The 2019 season won't be one that lives long in many Halstead memories as they have spent most of it struggling in the lower reaches of the division one table and attempting to stay clear of the relegation scrap.

That battle was ended last weekend as Halstead backed up their win at Maldon the week before with a four-wicket victory against Haverhill at Star Stile to ensure they could not finish in the bottom two.

With his team's top-flight safety now assured, Wells is looking for Halstead to finish the campaign strongly and record a third consecutive win when they head to Worlington on Saturday.

Wells said: "It is a sense of relief to have got ourselves safe and nice to have done it by getting two wins on the bounce.

"It has been a tough season and we know we should not have been in the position that we have been, but stringing a couple of good performances shows that we are in the right place and capable of going forwards with confidence.

"It's nice to be 100 per cent safe.

"It means we can enjoy Saturday's final game (at Worlington) knowing that there's no real pressure on the result, but we do want to finish with a win.

"It would be good to finish with three straight wins."