FOLLOWING their return to the Western Premier League, bullish captain Tom Horrell insists his side will learn from their narrow opening day defeat to Corsham.

The Wiltshire outfit won the toss and chose to bat and were immediately put under immense pressure by openers James Job and Will Golding. It was a bowlers day and soon Corsham were reduced to 48-4, however Corsham’s middle order battled away and ground out a total of 180 for eight wickets with James Job (3-30 and Will Golding (2-11) being the pick of the bowlers.

Stroud’s reply started off poorly with opener Paul Lazenbury falling early for a duck. Tight bowling, especially by the spinners kept the scoring to a minimum.

The Stroud innings seemed to mirror the Corsham one, as when Chris Job was run out for 12, the score was 48-4, same as Corsham. Stroud’s recovery was through Mike Alley (31) and Will Golding (42) but Stroud were always behind the rate even with a quick fire 18 from Nabi but in the end Stroud fell just short on 163 all out.

Horrell said: "We were the better side for large parts of the game. There were times where Corsham showed a higher level of professionalism that comes from playing in the league for many seasons but we must believe in our abilities as we are good enough to win these games. On another day we would have won this, the sides were well matched. We have work on the training ground to do and prepare for our clash with Chippenham on Saturday.”