BRIGHTLINGSEA welcomed reigning Essex Superleague and UK champions Southend to North Road and lost 9-3.

The visitors got off to a flying start in the pairs.

Brightlingsea’s Darren O’Neill and Bryan Margerison lost to Paul Marsh and John Costigan in 34 darts, with a combined average of 29.44.

Southend doubled their lead as Dan Day and Steve Hardy defeated Joe Twinn and Sam Lepley.

Southend made it three with Paul Barham and Barry Lynn defeating Alan Collins and Kevin Edwards in 41 darts.

Brightlingsea did, however, steal the last pairs set as Tony Osborne and Gavin Payne defeated Steve Haggerty and Shaun Lovett.

They looked for a response in the singles, which they got with Lepley beating Steve Haggerty.

He hit a 180 in the deciding leg, which gave him the edge to win 3-2.

Brightlingsea could have levelled but O’Neill lost out in a scrappy game against Hardy, with the latter emerging a 3-1 winner with winning legs of 22, 15 and 17.

Edwards was left beaten by an exceptional performance from Southend summer signing Costigan.

He stunned the home player in the second leg, with the Brightlingsea man missing a dart at the bull and his opponent going on to take out 150.

Costigan averaged 27.33 in his 3-0 victory.

Brightlingsea pulled another one back with Osborne defeating Lovett 3-0, with winning legs of 18, 15 and 22, averaging 27.33.

Next came four amazing sets by Southend, though.

First, Marsh, who was undefeated all season for Essex last year, beat Collins 3-0 with a 29.47 average, winning in an impressive 16, 17 and 18-dart legs.

Southend then got to the magical seven as Barham beat Margerison 3-1, with the Southend man winning his legs in 19, 19 and 21 darts.

Margerison hit two 180s but was unable to prevent defeat.

Next up, Day produced a man-of-the-match performance as he beat Payne 3-1 and hit a 30.34 average.

He won in 13, 18 and 19 darts.

In the leg Payne did win, he finished with a 118 checkout in 18 darts.

Last on, Lynn beat Twinn.

The latter started well, winning the first leg in 15 darts and hitting three ton-plus scores.

Lynn then showed his class and won the next three in 20, 15 and 17 darts, taking out a 136 in the third leg and making the final score 9-3.