It is becoming something of a habit for Colchester and East Essex to suffer an early season slump, in the Shepherd Neame Essex League.

Three games into the new premier division season and they are yet to win and sit one place off the bottom of the table.

They find themselves a long way from pre-season suggestions of being title contenders.

Following on from last weeks's National Cup thriller with Hainault and Clayhall, Colchester faced the East Londoners again, this time away from Castle Park, but another exciting encounter was served up.

Having been 158 for four, batting first, Hainault found themselves back in the pavilion 30 minutes later and preparing to field with just one more run added, as Andrew McGarry (18-5-32-3) and Ben France (10-1-37-3) blew away the middle and lower order.

There was also a wicket apiece for Alex Young and Malintha Gajanayake.

Colchester's run chase began badly, with Julian Russell and France both out before the score reached double figures.

Matt Austin (37 from 93 balls) steadied the innings, but wickets kept falling around him and only 27 from Young and 19 not out from McGarry provided any real hope of Colchester getting near the required target.

They were bowled out for 143 in 56 overs.

Colchester's second team had a more cheerful day, beating Hainault seconds in the second XI premier division.

Put in to bat, Hainault raced to 100 without loss, but the introduction of leg-spinner George Brown (17-1-81-4) made the going increasingly difficult for Hainault on an excellent Castle Park wicket.

Malcolm Edwards' 16- over spell deserved more than one wicket, while Neil Lenihan took two late wickets to restrict Hainault to 262 for seven from 52 overs.

Colchester recovered from the first over loss of Adam Rutter, with Mark Gaisford (41) and Chris Wheeler (56) providing the foundation for Australian Adam Kuss (72) to step up the run rate.

It was then left to Ian Oxborrow (41 not out) and Brown (20 not out) to see Colchester to victory with four overs and six wickets to spare.