Willow Cuts 94-3 Willow Cuts knocked St. George's from the ranks of the unbeaten yesterday at Wellington Oval when they beat them by seven wickets in a low, slow-scoring match.

Having been sent in by Willow Cuts, St. George's struggled all the way for runs as they clearly missed batsmen Clay Smith, Dean Minors and openers Dexter Smith and Eugene Foggo. And the modest total of 91 was never going to be enough to defend as Cuts took their time reaching their winning target.

Cuts were on the field just four overs when they got the breakthrough, having makeshift opener Phillip Burgess lbw to Rodney Fubler with just nine on the board.

Captain Graham Fox and vice captain Ricky Hodsoll departed when the team total was 16 and 17, both to Oswald Hinds, and after that it was a struggle to reach 100.

Youngster Jason Anderson offered some resistance with a top knock of 29 as he dominated the biggest stand for the team, one of 23 with Clevie Wade for the fifth wicket.

They came together after Ryan Steede's 90 minute innings for 18 runs ended when he was bowled by Rodney Fubler.

The only other batsman making a decent contribution was Lewis Foggo with 17.

It was a slow going day at the crease for the east enders who took three hours for their first 73 runs and batted 52.1 overs in total.

Hinds and Rodney Fubler, who shared the new ball, picked up five wickets between them -- Hinds claiming two for 24 off 10 overs and Fubler three for 26 from 15.1. Then it was left to spinner Vivian Simons to run through the middle order, bowling impressively for 15 overs and getting just reward by finishing with four for 15 with four maidens.

Their bowling ranks depleted, St. George's relied on spinner David Adams and Clevie Wade to do the brunt of the bowling after openers Graham Fox and Ryan Steede had gotten two early wickets with just 16 on the board. Fox removed Jermaine Warner in the fifth over and then Steede got Andre Hendrickson in the eighth before a third wicket stand of 37 between captain Dexter Basden (25) and his brother Richard put them back on track.

Richard had a key knock of 44 not out as he and Simons polished off the remaining 41 runs to wrap up an impressive victory with Simons finishing 11 not out.

Southampton 191 Nationals 195-2 Unbeaten half centuries by Jason Lewis and Mark Ray allowed Nationals to claim their second win of the young season as they trounced once powerful Southampton by eights wickets.

Taking a liking to the slow, placid wicket at Southampton Oval, Ray and Lewis launched into the equally appetising diet of medium-pace provided by the home team.

And when the dust finally settled the pair's partnership had accounted for 167 runs, with the more aggressive Lewis 89 not out and Ray, in a supportive role, 60 not out.

The duo, who came together following the loss of openers Quinn Outerbridge (18) and Graham Strange (eight), were forced to battle against time as at one stage they required nine runs from three overs.

It was at that point that Lewis took over, slamming a towering six onto South Shore Road off Rangers' Gary Crofton, which all but signalled the end, for in the next over it was all over as Lewis struck another boundary to finish matters.

In all Lewis slammed nine fours and two sixes in an innings that lasted two and a half hours, while Ray's 60 included just three fours and a single six.

Crofton and Dean Stevens were the only Southampton bowlers to claim a victim, with Crofton one-for-36 from seven overs and Stevens one-for-41 from 10.3 overs.

Lewis' late heroics clouded a splendid innings by Southampton skipper Olin Jones, who scored 83, including 10 fours.

Jones proved the lone bright spot during the home team's innings which was helped by Nationals contributing 32 extras.

Proving that he is no slouch with the ball either, Lewis took four wickets at a cost of just 16 runs, including that of Jones caught and bowled.

Others aiding in the opponent's demise were David Wright with three-for-46, David Gibbs with two-for-25 and Mark Ray with one-for-five.

The result was the second loss for Southampton against one win.

Police 302-6 Flatts 153-5 A solid second wicket stand of 157 between opener Wayne Clarke and Stevie Lightbourne, combined with a half-century from Ferdinand Thorne, proved to be insufficient to inspire Police to victory over Flatts in this Premier Division game at Devonshire Rec.

Offering stubborn resistance, Flatts managed to hold on for a hard-earned draw, thanks primarily to a patient 49 not out by Millard Bean who produced one of his finest innings by batting for 166 minutes with a runner after injuring himself while fielding.

Police hauled themselves out of trouble after losing skipper Dennis Archer without a run scored with Clarke, who two weeks ago hammered the first century of the season, stroking 81 and Lightbourne contributing with an elegant 83.

Once the attack was reduced to mediocrity after the early breakthrough the duo quickly piled on the runs, taking the total to 157 in quick time. Clarke struck nine fours and three sixes while Lightbourne was even more brutal as he finished with 10 fours and four sixes.

After they were both dismissed with the score 165 for three, quick runs still came from Thorne who hammered six fours and two sixes for 52, Donovan Livingston 34, Roger Blades 25 and Dwayne Leverock 14 not out.

Troy Bean was the best bowler for Flatts with two for 47 from 12 overs and two maidens while Aaron Woolridge had two for 65 off 13 overs and two maidens.

Few expected Flatts to bat as courageously as they did when they batted, but while it wasn't exactly pretty stuff staying at the wicket, their stubborn resistance was enough to earn a creditable draw.

Opener Troy Dean (five) had his stumps uprooted by Freston Hurdle with just seven runs scored but this early setback was overcome by some patient batting combined with a little sloppiness in the field by Police to carry the score to respectability.

Andrew Richardson (seven) and Derek Wright (38) put on 33 for the second wicket, then the latter and Bean added 48 for the third wicket.

With Bean batting superbly, despite obviously hurting from his injury, Flatts managed to defy the attack from 3.07 p.m. to the close of play at 6.37 p.m.

Terry Thomas was the best Police bowler with two for nine off six overs, including three maidens.

Social Club 85 Somerset 89-5 Somerset picked up their second win in four games, but made hard work of chasing a paltry target set by visitors Social Club.

After winning the toss and sending Social in to bat the home side quickly had the visitors in trouble at eight-for-two until a 38-run third wicket partnership between Robert Dill and captain Webster Mills rescued them, albeit briefly.

Mills contributed 37 and Dill 19, but once Dill was removed with the score 56 the bottom soon fell out as the final seven wickets fell in the span of 29 runs.

Somerset were content to share the wickets around with Charles Swan, James Swan and Sidney Simmons each claiming two, while Chris Caisey and Steven Brown had one apiece.

The west enders got off to a reasonable start in their chase for victory with 27 runs on the board for the first wicket before Tony Cheeseman (four) fell victim to Cecil Tucker.

From there the game proceeded literally at a snail's pace with Somerset needing almost three hours to reach the desired target.

High man for the victors was Shannon Warner with 37, while Brian Morris had 18.

Leonard Richardson and Cecil Pitcher claimed two-for-20 and two-for-nine respectively, while Cecil Tucker recorded the other batsman to fall.

Warwick 131 St. David's 132-5 Lionel Cann ran through the Warwick innings with seven for 30 and then stroked 34 as St. David's beat Warwick by five wickets at St. David's yesterday.

Cann bowled 17.2 overs and had 10 maidens on his way to seven scalps, including that of top batsman Ritchie Foggo who was high man for Warwick with 27 while Alan Wilkinson scored 21, the pair putting on 33 in taking the score from 49 for three to 92 for four. Earlier opener Johnny Nusum scored 18.

The other main wicket-taker for St. David's was opener Ken Pitcher with three for 16 from 13 overs.

Eddie Lamb and Desmond Crockwell put on 31 for the first wicket with Lamb scoring 27 and Crockwell 14. Then after Reginald Pitcher and Phillip Pitcher went cheaply to keep Warwick in the game at 49 for four, Cann and number three batsman Sammy Robinson combined for an important 51 for the fifth wicket before Cann fell to Quinton Sherlock Jr.

Robinson and Herbie Bascome made certain of victory, adding a further 32 for the unbeaten sixth wicket with Robinson finishing 29 not out and Bascome 17 not out.