MICHAEL Coles may have retired from the longer form of the game in Minor Counties cricket, but the former Wiltshire skipper proved his adeptness at the short stuff by steering his side to a second win in three on Saturday.

Coles, who stepped back from the three-day game with the county last month, hit 85 in 69 balls to help Corsham chase down Clevedon's 231-9 with two overs to spare at Station Road.

The knock included nine sixes and a couple of fours as Coles set about the visitors' attack before an unbeaten 23 from Joe King helped the home side over the line.

Earlier Tom Foley took 4-45 to restrict Clevedon to their total.

The visitors had made a positive start, opener Mansoor Khan (56) sharing a partnership of 77 with John Batchelor (38) before Jacob Lintott added 47 and shared a stand of 58 with Will Plummer (17) for the fifth wicket.

However five wickets went for just 26 runs as Corsham fought back and, despite losing wickets steadily in the reply, Coles' rapid knock set up the win.

Corsham opener Steve Bullen said: "It was a pretty close win I don’t think we played that well but it’s the sign of a good team to win when you aren’t playing well.

“Collectively as a unit and as a team we managed to come through on some great individual performances.

“I think it was one of those days. It is a long season and sometimes you have those games where it just doesn’t happen, but we dragged ourselves through to get the win.

“We had a tricky schedule at the start of the season and that was always going to be tough.

 I’m excited for the weekend (against Bath) because our cricket in the last few games has been good and it’s good to test yourself against the best two.''

Potterne's recent good run came to a halt as they were leapfrogged into third place by Bristol after a four-wicket defeat.

The villagers paid the price for a poor batting start as they mustered just 130 all out in 32.2 overs.

Skipper Ed Young led the way with 54 off 61 deliveries but he received precious little back-up with Thomas Cullen's 23 being the only other noteworthy score.

Ralph Hardwick's 3-6 in just two overs pegged them back, but the visitors seemed ready to make a game of it as Bristol were reduced to 7-3, with Dylan Higgins (2-18) and Young (2-16) working in tandem.

Jake Kings' unbeaten 60 steadied the Bristol ship and his partnership of 48 with skipper William Rudge (18 not out) got the hosts home after 29 overs.