CORSHAM'S tough start to the season showed little signs of abating on Saturday when they fell to a five-wicket loss to reigning West of England Premier League champions Frocester.

The Station Road side, who lost to Bath on the opening day of the season, were never able to cut loose against an accurate Frocester attack.

Corsham were restricted to 172-9 from their 50 overs with Sam Collier top scoring with 57 off 93 balls, while normally free-flowing batsman and skipper Ashur Morrison played a patient innings as he scored 20 off 60 deliveries.

In reply, Dwaine Fielding made the early breakthrough as he bowled Frocester skipper and former Gloucestershire opener Nick Trainor for one.

However, the visitors repaired the damage with Wiltshire batsman Uzi Qureshi (45) and Paul Muchall (39) laying the platform for success which sealed with 63 balls to spare.

Corsham must now look to get their first win on the board in Premier One on Saturday when they make the trip to Taunton.

“That is a massive game for us now,” said Corsham batsman Michael Coles. “We need to get our winning run started.

“It was not ideal playing Bath and Frocester in the opening two games of the season, but you have to play them at some point.”

Of the performance against Frocester, Coles felt that Corsham were missing the rub of the green.

“There were a few times that they just managed to chip over the fielder and hand they gone to hand them maybe it could have been different – just like if we had taken a few early wickets,” added Coles, who is also the Wiltshire captain.

“Man for man we match up to Frocester, but they are very good at playing as a unit and they kept the pressure on us.

“Ashur, who is normally a batsman who goes after the attack, scored 20 off 10 overs because you could justify a different approach.”