BRIGHTLINGSEA returned to Essex Men's Superleague action with a 7-5 victory at Colchester.

Their success and results elsewhere helped them close the gap on leaders Southend.

Colchester raced into a 2-0 lead as Adam Howard and Mick Cain defeated Tony Osborne and Bryan Margerison in 39 darts, before Brightlingsea's Kevin Edwards and Alan Collins lost to Darron Britton and Stuart Hunt in 38.

Brightlingsea needed to dig in and their two remaining pairs duly responded.

Joe Twinn and Colin Lloyd got the first point on the board with a win over Eddie Gosling and Michael Stevens in 38 darts, with Lloyd averaging 35.89, including a maximum.

Then, in the last pair set, Rab Scott and Gavin Payne beat Steve Gentry and Dominic Ryan to level the match in 32 darts, with a combined average of 31.28.

Into the singles and first up for Brightlingsea was Lloyd.

He put his side in the lead for the first time, seeing off the challenge of Gentry with a 3-0 win, with legs of 22, 19 and 16 and an average of 26.37.

Twinn made it 4-2 with another 3-0 victory over Ricky Paterson, with legs of 24, 18 and 23.

In the next set, Colchester reduced the lead with Cain putting in an impressive performance against Scott to win 3-0, recording a 28.36 average.

It was Cain's highest of the season, with winning legs of 22, 14 and 17.

In the fourth singles set, Brightlingsea restored the lead to two as Margerison beat Ryan 3-0 with winning legs of 18, 20 and 18 to average 26.84.

Hunt, for Colchester, made it 5-4 as he beat Collins in a last-leg decider.

Collins won the first leg in 18 darts.

Hunt then levelled in 19, before a miscount from Collins allowed his opponent to win the third in 19.

Collins then levelled in 20 before Hunt won the decider in 26.

The next set went Brightlingsea's way as Edwards took the man-of-the-match award with a superb performance, averaging 29.86 against Gosling.

Gosling won the first leg in 21 darts, but then Edwards took over and won in 17, 17 and 14 darts.

Colchester closed the gap again as Howard beat Payne in another last-leg decider.

Payne won the first leg in 20 darts, but Howard responded in 21 darts and a 118 checkout.

Howard won the next in 22 darts before Payne levelled in 21.

In the last leg, the youngster held his nerve to win in 18 darts.

In the last set, it was all to play for at 6-5 as Brightlingsea's Osborne took on Britton.

Britton won the opening leg but then Osborne responded with a 120 checkout.

Britton found a 14-dart leg before Osborne levelled at 2-2.

In the final leg, Osborne found an 84 finish to give Brightlingsea the points, 7-5.

Next week, Brightlingsea host Brightlingsea Regent in a derby at the football club, in North Road.