WEPL Premier 1

Bristol 157-3 beat Taunton St Andrew's 154 by 7 wkts

TAUNTON St Andrew's returned to the foot of the table after a damaging defeat at fellow strugglers Bristol on Saturday.

The Saints were put in by their hosts and opener Jack Cooper had an entertaining, if brief, stay at the crease, hitting two fours and two sixes before falling for 20 from six balls.

James Rew soon followed for a single but the Saints passed 50 in the eighth over as their brisk start continued.

James Regan (18), Eddie Byrom (32) and Lloyd Alley (21) all got themselves in, however the visitors could not put together a decisive partnership.

Josh Thomas dug in admirably, the 14-year-old making 28 from 47 balls before he was the ninth man out - the innings was wrapped up on 154 shortly afterwards as the Saints left 18 overs unused.

The visitors started well with the ball as in-form paceman Craig Dourado (2-38) struck twice, former Somerset academy graduate Fin Trenough (1) among his early scalps as the hosts slipped to 14-2.

That brought Will Tavaré, nephew of former Somerset captain Chris, to the crease and he put on 60 for the third wicket with Josh Tasman-Jones, who fell to Lloyd Alley (1-12) for 30.

Gloucestershire's Tavaré, who is to retire from First Class cricket at the end of the season, stayed put and finished unbeaten on 71 to lead a stress-free chase for his side.

He was ably supported by Louie Shaw, who finished 29 not out as Bristol crossed the line with 16.1 overs to spare.

Saints captain James Regan said: "We went there confident after some good results but we were not up to scratch in all three facets of the game.

"It was a pitch where 250 would have been par and I think, had we got through the new ball, we could have pushed on towards that.

"As senior players, we are leaving too much to our youngsters - who have been absolutely fantastic.

"Josh Thomas has been carrying our batting, and to an extent our bowling, for the last two or three weeks and he is 14 years old.

"He, and our other young players, are the positives we can take from a tough situation.

"James Rew kept as well as I've ever seen him keep, Craig [Dourado] is in form and George Thomas is a phenomenal talent.

"Bristol and ourselves deserve to be where we are but I maintain we are a better team than them, we just didn't show up on the day."

The Saints are unchanged for the visit of mid-table Downend on Saturday.

"We have five games left and we know what we have to do," Regan said.

"We can only win our games - what other teams do is out of our control - and see where it takes us."