Colchester got off to the perfect start in their Shepherd Neame Essex League campaign with a crushing eight-wicket victory over newly-promoted Division One rivals Walthamstow.

Skipper Andrew Kennedy won the toss and put the away side into bat on a slightly damp Castle Park track.

Colchester capitalised immediately reducing Walthamstow to 27-3 off 12 overs thanks to fine spells by Nick Gibbs and James Crafford, however, the opposition skipper Schofield then salvaged the innings with a fine 86.

The introduction of Willie Doe and Scott McKillop meant that run-scoring was difficult, and with Doe finally dismissing Schofield in the 49th over the innings subsided to 160 all out from 49.5 overs.

Doe finished with excellent figures of 4-27 from 10.5 overs and he was ably assisted by the luckless McKillop (1-46 off 12 overs).

This left Colchester just over two hours to reach their target and this they did in style with 15 of the last 20 overs to spare.

The innings began with a good opening partnership between Tim Rodda (31) and Chris Wheeler (38), they added 60 before Rodda was dismissed. This brought Essex's Graham Napier to the crease who had not scored a 50 since last July.

He smashed 58 off just 40 balls, with one six and six fours as he added 54 with Wheeler and then 47 with Arthur Wormington (24) to lead Colchester to a comfortable victory.

Colchester completed a fine weekend double with an easy victory over Browns in the Jaygate Homes Two Counties Championshipe. Browns could only muster 52-7 thanks to good bowling from skipper Nick Chadwick (4-49) and Crafford (2-29).

They cruised to their victory target for a loss of six wickets, with three overs to spare, thanks mainly to Kennedy's 43 and useful 20's from Lorrie Austin, Pip George, Colin Bones and Arthur Wormington.

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