COLCHESTER and East Essex will be going all out to retain their Dukes Essex T20 Trophy when they compete at Finals Day this weekend, according to skipper Tom Ullyott.

The Castle Park side travel to Billericay Cricket Club on Sunday aiming to hold on to the county crown they won last year, having booked their place at the event by beating Harlow in their quarter-final last weekend.

Colchester face Brentwood in the semi-final at 11am, with the winners playing either Chelmsford or Shenfield in the final, scheduled for 3pm.

Ullyott told the Daily Gazette: “We’d love to win the competition again this year and we’ll be giving it everything we can to do that.

“There will be a lot of people there watching and it’ll be a good atmosphere, so we’re looking forward to it.

“It’s a bit of a change to be playing T20 and I hope that we can go out on Sunday and do ourselves justice.

“We have a number of players who are unavailable and it'll be a very different team I think to the one that won it last year but we’ll give it our best shot.”

Before they compete at Finals Day, Colchester will be aiming to get back to winning ways in the Shepherd Neame Essex League premier division after two successive defeats.

Colchester host eight-placed Buckhurst Hill at Castle Park, looking to bounce back from recent defeats against Chelmsford and Hornchurch.

However, they will be without several key players against Buckhurst Hill, with Sam Foster, Harry Bush and Julian Russell all unavailable.

Colchester, who are fifth, will check on the fitness of bowler Ben Stephens before the game, after he missed last weekend’s 92-run defeat at Hornchurch because of an ankle injury.

Ullyott added: “It was disappointing to lose at Hornchurch but they’re a strong team, as are all of the top three teams in our division - they are all deserve to be where they are in the table.

“They have a good variety with their batting and their bowling but I still think anyone can beat anyone in this league and it’s still fairly open, in terms of the top three being decided.

“You only have to look at last weekend, with Shenfield beating Chelmsford.

"We’ve lost two in a row now and have dropped down to fifth, so we’ll be looking to get back to winning ways against Buckhurst Hill tomorrow.”