CORSHAM captain Neil Shardlow saw his side slump to a four wicket defeat at Taunton with a performance as poor as last week's draw with Bath was excellent.

The confidence gained from the winning draw at home evaporated with a dismal batting performance that left the hosts with a simple victory.

Shardlow lost the toss and Corsham were put into bat first.

They made a slow start and soon lost Peter Dennett, caught Lee Hart off the bowling of Gary Bennett for 8. Bennet also claimed the wicket of Tom Abbott for 22 a few overs later.

A steadying innings from overseas player Kaushik Aphale with 79 looked destined to push the visitors' score along but Taunton's Reg Keates tore the heart out of the Corsham middle order with an unstoppable display.

The visitors slumped from 103-4 to 153 all out as Aphale, Andrew Davies, 5, and Richard Foley, 1 departed.

Roger Sillence went for 8 off the bowling of James Hudson, another catch for Lee Hart and then Hudson dismissed Mark Hadrill for 0, this time caught by Jonathan Kerslake.

The only Corsham resistance came from Toby Sharpe, whose stubborn 20 at least gave his side's total some respectability.

Keates returned to grab the wickets of Neil Shardlow, 4, and Paul Clifford, 0 to end the Corsham innings on 153 all out after 54.3 overs.

He returned to haunt the visitors again when he and fellow opener Lee Cooper started at a brisk pace. But when Shardlow caught Keates off the bowling of Aphale for 28 and Cooper became Foley's first victim while on 14, the game looked to be turning in Corsham's favour.

Foley added three more wickets to his haul as Bennet, 23, Chris Grange, 10, and Paul Bradbury, 3, were sent back to the pavilion.

That left Taunton on 94-5 and Corsham sensed the chance to win the match. But Hudson and Hart had other ideas. When Andrew Davies caught Rob Berry off Aphale for 14 Taunton were left on 110-6 and Hart joined Hudson the bat the home side to victory,

Hudson finished on 27 and Hart on 20 as Taunton galloped to the winning target in 40.5 overs.