CORSHAM captain Neil Shardlow is worried that an injury crisis could ruin their season before it has got off the ground.

Paul Clifford and Steve Silk were already out with knee injuries before Rob Murphy put out his shoulder diving for a catch during the defeat at Keynsham.

Shardlow said: "We are struggling, but luckily we are welcoming back Jason Searle this week who will be a straight swop for Rob."

Corsham crashed to a four-wicket defeat on Saturday, but the captain has taken plenty of positives from the game.

Despite the loss two good partnerships, first of 55 between Oliver Smith and Richard Foley and another by Toby Sharpe and Foley, showed things are rosy for the Wiltshiremen.

James Ashford-Brown also pitched in with another good performance taking another three wickets (3-44).

Corsham went into bat first and, once Peter Dennett (18) had been removed by Wiltshire's James Golding, Smith (43) and Foley's (72no) partnership took the score to 87-2.

Only nine more runs had been scored when Stephen Nicholls (4) was caught by Golding off the bowling of Mark Cole.

Then Steven Copland (10) was stumped by Jon Baker off the bowling of Deepesh Patel and Corsham had fallen to 113-4.

But a partnership of 59 between Sharpe (28) and Foley helped take the score to a reasonable 172-5 with Shardlow (11no) helping Foley take the away sides final total to 197-5 off 55 overs.

A good opening gave Corsham hope, Ashford-Brown removing Sam McArthur for 2, with Keynsham quickly falling to 86-4 after Golding (4) had been caught by Shardlow.

However, a 103 stand for the fifth wicket between Ben Whittingdon (25) and Richard Pannell (88no) took the game the way of the Bristolians to move them top of Premier One.

Seventh placed Corsham will be looking to get back to winning ways on Saturday when they host eighth-placed Bristol West Indians. Shardlow added: "We will be taking three spinners into the game, which will have a bearing on the wicket we prepare. We can't afford to lose."