OUR win against Essex has sent out a message to the rest of LV County Championship Division Two that we are the team to beat this season.

To chase down nearly 350 on the final day was a fantastic effort and it was pleasing to see Daryl Mitchell getting three-figures.

He has got a lot of important runs for us this season and is another of our unsung heroes.

The way he got his runs set the tone of the innings and the icing on the cake was Graeme Hick leading us home.

The win down at Colchester has put us a win and seven points clear at the top and the game against Warwickshire next week is vitally important.

The pitch at Colchester did not break up like you’d expect a fourth day pitch to.

For the first time this season when Essex were batting we were just trying to stay in the game. Then to go on and win it, well it was fantastic.

In the game against Essex, Ben Smith reached the 1,000-run milestone. He has been playing beautifully all season.

Benny has been rewarded with a new contract and that is fantastic news for him. He deserves it.

He goes about his business quietly and to get to 1,000 runs without scoring a century is a phenomenal achievement.

But the Durham game on Sunday was bitterly disappointing. They are a side with quality players throughout.

You only have to look at their bowling changes. But, if we are honest, we didn’t get enough runs.

We were light in the bowling department with Simon Jones, Matt Mason and Kabir Ali out. We lacked options.

On Thursday, we head off to Taunton to face Somerset in another Pro40 match.

It is a traditionally high-scoring match — just look at their result against Gloucestershire last Saturday.

We are going to need to score 300-plus runs if we are to stand a chance.

But this is a division where everyone can beat everyone so we can’t let ourselves drop our high standards if we are still to be in with a shout.

After facing Somerset, we take on Gloucestershire again — we play so many times in a season we know each other pretty well, so it will be tight.

But, after the beating we gave them at Cheltenham earlier in the month, we know we can defeat them.