Nailsea travelled to league leaders Stapleton hoping to pull off a surprise but went down by seven wickets.

Having decided to bat first, Nailsea got away to a sound start, with openers Mike Ready (29) and Gary Phippen (14) adding exactly 50.

However, once they fell, wickets began to fall at regular intervals, as batters got starts, but were unable to build meaningful partnerships.

Ryan Lester (10), Rob Lange (16) and captain Pete Hardcastle (26) chipped in, with useful contributions from David McIlroy with (15) and Mat Beadle (17 not out) getting Nailsea to a reasonable 155-8 from their 40 overs.

Stapleton also got off to a useful start in reply and it took the introduction of Al Rogerson (1-21) to make the breakthrough thanks to a Steve Lester catch.

But despite ringing the changes, Nailsea could not make inroads into the batting order until Hardcastle (2-18) joined the attack late on and took two quick wickets, aided by catches from Tony Hill and Rob Lange.

Next weekend sees Nailsea host Oldfield Park, hoping to reverse the fortunes from the earlier meeting between the two sides.