EARLY Southern League Division Three leaders Basingstoke and North Hants second team suffered their first defeat of the season at Fairoak.

Having been put into bat they seemed to have weathered the early loss of Andy Giles as Max Harsham (27), Chris Oliver (41) and Bradley Neal (42) got the side into three figures.

Unfortunately, the rest of the batting failed to fire, except for skipper Chris Chandler (22) from 21 balls.

This helped the visitors to 178, which proved not enough as the home side won by three wickets.

This was after Chandler and Neal accounted for both openers, but Ed Kemp (37) and Andrew Sturman (39) put on 76 for the third wicket.

Steve Bucksey (3-34) aided a mini collapse as they slid to 125-6, but Charlie Gwynn with a match winning unbeaten 39 and Richard Featherstone (19) got the home side to 168-7, from where Gwynn finished the job off.

The Bountymen will hope to bounce back to winning ways next weekend when they are at home to Havant II.