HALSTEAD Cricket Club captain Josh Wells wants his team to keep their ruthless edge as they look to build on a solid start to the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one season.

Wells took his maiden first-team five-wicket haul as Halstead beat reigning champions Elmstead by nine wickets last weekend to place themselves third in the top-flight table.

And, with his team in buoyant form, the skipper is looking for them to press on and put sides to the sword in the same way as they did against Elmstead - starting with a trip to Frinton seconds tomorrow.

"We've had the same nine or ten players each week so far and that has helped," said Wells.

"It's been good to have that consistency and it has helped with the team spirit as everyone is really enjoying their cricket at the moment.

"We are now looking to get on a roll and will be looking to pick up a win against Frinton on Saturday.

"We're third at the moment and I think, with how tight the table is, that a couple of wins could push us up to the top and that would be great.

"I'm pleased with how we've started the season.

"We feel we are in a good position at the moment and I'm just looking for us to stay competitive in the way that we were against Elmstead last weekend.

"We were a bit more ruthless then and that was good to see.

"In the past, we may have let it slip and allowed a couple of wickets to get away so they'd have got past 150 rather than being all out for 100.

"But this time we had that ruthless edge.

"Elmstead themselves are probably a good example of that as, last year; they may not have had the best individual players, but they were very competitive and knew how to win games as a team.

"By doing that they won the league and we can learn from that."

Wells said Chris Rayner and Joe Morris may be missing this weekend, but he expected Graham Wickes to be available and Harry Pritchard should be back from university.

Aside from his own bowling heroics, Wells was pleased to see Ed Clark claim four wickets against Elmstead and an 81 from Chris Huntington underpinned a dominant response in a comprehensive victory.

"It was quite straightforward really," added Wells.

"We bowled well after losing the toss, which we were not too disappointed about as we felt there was something there for the bowlers early on.

"That proved the case and Ed Clark got the big wickets early on and we then got through the middle and lower order quite quickly.

"I was pleased with my own performance and it was actually my first five-wicket haul for the first team, which was nice.

"However, I was really hoping Ed would get the fifth wicket.

"We were bowling together at the end and I felt he really deserved it for the way he had bowled at the start of the match, but I was still pleased to get it myself.

"We have been struggling to get wickets a bit in the early part of the season, but it was the complete opposite on Saturday.

"It was good to keep Elmstead down to 100 and we then chased down the total quite easily.

"Chris Huntington batted well and we got home well.

"It was nice to see Chris playing like that as we have had three games now where we have had three different people getting past 80.

"It's nice that it's not the same people and shows the strength we have."