On a sunny evening in North Somerset, 2022 Somerset Intermediate Cup winners Cleeve CC crashed out of the cup to a strong Weston-super-Mare side, losing last week's T20 matchup by seven wickets.

Invited to bat first, Cleeve hoped for a strong start but lost skipper, Sam Williams early on, bowled by Dexter Trego for 12 at 16-1.

James Ball added just one run before his departure and Mitch Want followed soon after for a top score of 22 at 39-3, with both batters getting bowled.

There was then a steady procession of wickets as Cleeve struggled to create any meaningful partnerships.

Tim Birt, Andy Barnsley, Conor Hance, Sam Jervis and Jalal Ahmed, all failed to make double figures, whilst there was just a brief cameo from Jack Spiers who made 12 as Cleeve limped along to post 104-9 after their 20 over innings.

In reply, Cleeve knew they needed an early break-through, but conceded a number of runs behind square and a several aerial shots perfectly bisecting the field, not helped by an early Cleeve spill.

Barnsley, three overs for 21 runs, Hance, three overs for 18, and Ahmed, one over for nine, were unsuccessful throughout the first half of the innings but Williams’ introduction to the bowling attack produced the first wicket.

A false stroke from Trego saw the Weston batsman nick the skippers’ delivery off to keeper Carpenter to give Williams his 1-19 from three overs and put Weston at 78-1 in the 12th over.

Spiers, four overs for 19 runs, bowled well before Jervis created a number of play and missed shots before finally landing a scalp to remove Mayo for 10 in the penultimate over as keeper Tom Carpenter held on to his second catch.

Cam Elswood bowled an impressive one over, conceding just five runs and castling Belcher for a top score of 48, before Weston reached their target on the last ball of the 18th over to win by seven wickets.

Another 30 or so runs would have made things interesting for Cleeve, but it was just not evening as they see Weston progress into the next round.