Bridgwater CC 206ao (49.2ovs) lost to Bath CC 207-6 (46.4ovs) by 4 wicket

DESPITE a gutsy performance from a much depleted team, due to injuries and unavailability, Bridgwater fell to their third consecutive league defeat at the hands of a full strength Premier 1 Champions elect Bath, at North Parade on Saturday.

In a positive mood, Bridgwater skipper Chris Skidmore chose to bat first but lost Ben Coombes (8) early on to bring the hard hitting Charlie Sharland to the crease.

He and Merv Hallaran (45) who brought up his 9000th run for the Club, added a very positive 94 for the second wicket before he skied a top edge to be caught just inside the square leg boundary with the score on 118.

The excellent Sharland (60) fell lbw shortly after, reverse sweeping Bath skipper Rouse (3-39) after hitting him for three massive straight 6's, a disappointing dismissal after such a positive innings.

Unfortunately, the visitors couldn't put together another partnership of note with only Kyron Devitt (28) standing firm as wickets fell steadily around him.

The tail ground out as many runs as they could against very tight bowling but the final score of 206 all out in the last over seemed way below par against a team who have been scoring 300 plus every week.

Bridgwater's bowlers responded very positively however bowling tight lines, backed up by excellent fielding.

Despite this, Bath's prolific openers Jack Scriven (42) and overseas Bradley Porteous (45) cautiously took the score to 87 before Tom Allcot removed both in quick succession on his way to his best bowling performance for the 1st X1.

He finished with 4-31 off his 10 overs aided by two excellent catches from keeper Alex Eckland to keep him on top of the wicket keeping dismissals in Premier 1.

A very sharp run out by Devitt to remove the dangerous Morrison left Bath at 151-5 with plenty to do but a patient 54 run partnership between Rouse and Muchell took Bath to within 2 runs before Ian Higgins picked up the deserved wicket of Muchell in the 47th over but it still left Bath 4 wkt.