An attempted intramolecular Stille coupling of a bis-stannylethene proceeds not by ipso-substitution (7-endo-cyclisation but via a ci,le substitution pathway (6-exo-cyclisation), Deuterium labelling studies and blank reactions are in consonance with a palladium carbene mechanism originally put forward by Busacca to explain the cine substitution reactions of styrylstannanes. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.