A week after knocking Bailey's Bay out of first place, Police returned to their unpredictable ways yesterday at Devonshire Rec. field as mid-table Flatts got in on the giant-killing act.

However, this time Police did not fail to defend a big total but rather made a mess out of chasing Flatts' challenging 224 on a small field as underdogs Flatts performed admirably in the field.

Flatts must have had some regrets about batting first upon winning the toss as they lost their first two wickets with just 13 runs on the board with Andrew Richardson and Troy Dean falling to opening bowlers Roger Blades and Donovan Livingston.

A third-wicket stand of 40 between Derek Wright and Aaron Woolridge steadied the rocking ship as Wright dominated the stand and after Woolridge's departure he went on to finish with an even 50 from three sixes and four fours.

Wright shared in a brief stand of 34 with his captain Rodney Woolridge and when he was fourth out on 87, Woolridge started to tear into the Police bowlers as he raced to his first century of the season before the 50 overs expired.

The left-handed Woolridge finished 103 not out, his knock containing three sixes and eight fours.

Woolridge's nephew, Dwayne Leverock, was the top bowler for Police with three for 53 from his 10 overs of left-arm spin while captain Dennis Archer took two for 19 and Livingston two for 25.

Number seven batsman Roger Blades led the Police batting but after the early damage inflicted by the Flatts bowlers, his dashing knock of 47 served only to delay the inevitable as Flatts troubled them with a combination of medium-pace and spin. Police were 52 for five when Blades came to the wicket and he scored 47 of the next 79 runs, hitting five sixes and two fours.

Leverock was the other main contributor for Police with 30 as Troy Bean and Gerald Sims claimed three for 16 and 18 respectively while Maxwell Lawrence took two for 36 from his 10 overs.

Bailey's Bay 158 Somerset Bridge 95 An incident involving a persistent Bailey's Bay fan served to rattle Somerset Bridge after they reduced the home team to just 158.

Bridge will file a complaint with the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control over the incident involving the fan who threatened their wicket-keeper and club president Kenny (Pop) Simmons in the dressing room.

According to a Bridge member the fan returned on a couple of occasions looking for Simmons who had asked him to leave after he started to shout abuse at a Bridge batsman who had just been dismissed. The fan returned on another occasion when Simmons was preparing to go to bat and Noel Gibbons had to come off the field to take the fan away.

The fan returned at the end of the match and again had to be restrained.

Bridge had been struggling at 47 for six in reply to the Bay total and when captain Robin Swan was seventh out on 72 for a top score of 28, Bridge were facing sure defeat.

Tail-ender Sidney Simmons was the only other Bridge batsman in double figures with 13 as Clarkie Trott was the top bowler for Bay with three for 19 from 10 overs and Gibbons two for 19 from 10 overs.

Earlier, Gibbons led the Bay batting with 58 after they had a bad start at 16 for three with captain Chris Smith, Devrae Hollis and Ricky Hill all going cheaply to the pace of Craig Brangman who also added the wicket of Gibbons to finish the match with four for 62.

Glenn Smith was the next high man for Bay with 22 while Charlie Marshall scored 18. Gary Crofton, who shared the new ball with Brangman, took two for 32 and Corvet Lambert two for 27.

Hamilton Parish 153 Cleveland 154-2 After off-spinner Hugh Murray claimed five for 24 from 10 overs in his second match of the season, college student Jermaine Postlethwaite hammered five fours and six sixes in an unbeaten knock of 72 to seal Cleveland's comfortable eight-wicket win at Wellington Oval.

Despite being well placed at 108 for three, thanks to 37 from opener Cal Burgess and 26 from Phillip Burgess, Parish quickly slumped to 138 for seven with Murray picking up the next four wickets.

Millard Bean (15) and Cal Burgess put on 32 for the first wicket and after being 60 for two Cal and Phillip Burgess took the score to 108 in the team's biggest stand.

However, the run-out of Phillip proved to be the breakthrough Cleveland needed as Murray engineered the collapse with the next four wickets as Parish found themselves in trouble with the bulk of their batting gone. Opener Diallo Sharrieff supported Murray with two for 22 as he came back for his second spell and ended the Parish innings by having Curtis Lee caught behind for six.

Parish got an early breakthrough when Grant Smith was removed by Lee with just 20 runs on the board. The second-wicket stand between captain Peter Philpott (26) and Postlethwaite produced 63 runs and laid the foundation for the win.

After Philpott's departure Postlethwaite went on to complete his half-century as he and Aaron Adams (31 not out) added 71 in the unbeaten third-wicket stand.

Devonshire Rec. 217-7 PHC 118 Skipper Albert Steede scored 101 not out to lead Devonshire Rec. to a 99-run victory over winless PHC at White Hill field.

Steede, whose previous high this season was 36 against Western Stars, must have realised that there were a lot of runs for him on the wicket when he decided to bat first after winning the toss against his lowly opponents.

With Steede leading the way Devonshire easily reached a respectable total with several players making decent contributions to the score. Mark Ray struck 29, Winston Trott Jr. 21, Roger Trott 19 and Jason Lewis 14.

Sheridan (Baldy) Ming was top scorer for PHC with 40. Anthony Amory grabbed three wickets for Devonshire while veteran Erskine (Choe) Smith claimed two.

Further details of the game were unavailable last night.

YOUTH TO YOUTH -- Hasan Durham, left, and Cleon Scotland converse during their vital 110-run, sixth-wicket stand for Western Stars in the Central Counties Cup final on Saturday. (Story on Page 25).