Taunton St. Andrews 169-4, Corsham 168 (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Taunton St. Andrews 169-4, Corsham 168

PREMIER ONE: CORSHAM were missing five first choice players as they stuttered to a six-wicket away defeat to Taunton St. Andrews on Saturday.

Corsham travelled without Paul Clifford, Jason Searle, Steve Perrin, Toby Sharpe and Peter Dennett as they failed to capitalise on a solid start.

Captain Neil Shardlow said travelling to Taunton St. Andrews was always going to be tough even without missing half the first team.

"We had a solid start and looked fairly comfortable and we were looking towards getting our target totals of 60 runs for the first 20 overs, and 100 off 30 overs.

"Then Richard (Foley) gave himself up when he could have gone on and helped us reach a decent target.

"But to be fair to him he put in a good innings when he was in bat."

Craig Chaplin again showed what he could do with the ball finishing with 1-8, with three maidens off his six overs.

But with so many bowlers missing Shardlow said there was too much pressure on Chaplin, Foley and James Ashford-Brown.

"It was one of those things. We knew that this week was coming up and we just wanted to get through it," said Shardlow.

Corsham now host top of the table and in-form Glastonbury on Saturday with the Somerset side likely to name a number of first class county players.

"Hopefully we will have all our players back except from Steve (Perrin) and we will need them because it will be a difficult game," added the captain.

"Steve should be back the following week and we are hoping to have Steve Silk back from injury as well.

"When we are back to full strength we will be pushing the top sides again.

"It is very tight between third and ninth so we need to be picking up more wins."

Corsham were put into bat by their hosts with Tom Abbott (22) and Stephen Nicholls (23) opening well.

Foley then added 51 but was poorly supported by the rest of the side with only Shardlow (18) and Andrew Davis (14) making it to double figures.

Taunton St. Andrews then knocked off the runs comfortably with Paul Lawrence (54) Kevin Sedgbeer (32no) proving the main contributors.