Cricket: In-form Alex Senneck starred with bat and ball on Saturday but it was not enough to prevent Corsham slipping to their first league defeat of the season.

The opening bowler came to the crease with his side struggling at 50-5 and made 73 vital runs to give them a score to defend.

He was then typically impressive with the ball to finish with figures of 3-50 but it proved to be in vain as Weston reached their target with three wickets to spare.

“We didn’t put in our best team display,” said captain Peter Dennett. “We were at about 60 per cent which is a bit disappointing but it goes to show if you don’t play at your best in this league then you won’t win.

“We had a little chat afterwards, nothing too heavy, and hopefully it proves to be a one-off.”

Wicket-keeper Steve Bullen was one of the few batsmen to offer resistance with a dogged 51 from 140 balls, but the remainder of the top six all failed to get more than five runs.

Along with Senneck, the pair put on 93 for the sixth wicket while Somerset-contracted bowler David Stiff took 5-49 for the visitors.

After a lively start, the home side looked as if they might steal an unlikely victory when they managed to reduce Weston to 119-6.

Veteran seamer Craig Chaplin, only called up on the morning of the game, bamboozled the visitors with only eight runs coming off his ten overs. But Corsham were unable to make the decisive breakthrough and Stiff wrapped up victory with two boundaries.

“At one stage it looked like we might get 200, which is really the minimum you need on our pitch,” said Dennett, whose side visit Bristol on Saturday. “Their seven and eight showed our top order how it should be done.”