routing home standing Exiles 6-1 at Shelly Bay.

The visitors owed a great debt to forward John Perreira, who produced a stunning first half hat-trick, raining on Exiles season and home opener.

Perreira's tallies came from close range after defensive breakdowns.

Rangers led by three at the interval as the home side paid the price for showing up with just nine players -- a figure that increased to 11 after the interval when coach Quinton Jones and Craig Tyrrell joined the fray.

Jones notched the lone score for Exiles, but this was followed by three more strikes by Rangers.

Also getting off to a rousing start were Forties who defeated newly-promoted Fire Service 4-1.

Forties owed much of their success to Jorg Wolf, who scored twice, as well as Kent Bascome and Adrian Munnery with one goal apiece.

Allan Wilkinson notched a consolation effort for Fire Service, who trailed 1-0 at the half.

Leaving it late were BAA Wanderers -- last year's runners-up -- as they needed a 70th minute goal from Steve Irvine to sew up maximum points from their encounter against Lobster Pot which ended 1-0.

Meanwhile, defending champions Robin Hood got off to an inauspicious beginning when they were held 1-1 by KPMG.

Hood sprinted to a 1-0 lead after just three minutes when Mike Stenhouse beat the home side's defence to score.

KPMG recovered from the early setback, preventing any further damage before finally responding with a mid-second half equaliser from Donnie Smith.

The other Group A match saw Spinning Wheel and Devonshire Colts All-Stars engage in an entertaining encounter at PHC that ended 3-3.

Keith Bell netted twice for Spinning Wheel and was helped by one from Stevie Tucker, while Harrison Trott, Jeff Richardson and a Keith Bean own goal constituted All-Stars' response.

In Group B action North Village Rams served notice that they will once again be a force to be reckoned with after mauling Valley 5-1.

The team of former Village stars used their experience to beat their more youthful opponents, instead leaving them gasping at the end.

Mike Levon led the goal-scoring spree for Rams with two goals, while single tallies came from Wendell Baxter, Danny Rogers and Cal Dill.

Another wide open, but ill-tempered affair saw new club Mariners down Devonshire Lions 4-2 at the Rec., despite being reduced to 10 men for the final 20 minutes when Craig Dixon received his marching orders for violent conduct.

Jose Barbosa, John Frias, Richard Correia and Mark DeCouto scored for Mariners, while Donald Norford and Anthony Amory replied for Lions.

Another new team, Belco Charges encountered a solid beginning in holding Somerset Extros to a 3-3 draw.

Kenneth Furbert, Oscar Samuels and Anthony Raynor scored for Belco, while Jerry-Lynn Simons, Lew Simmons and Douglas Durrant replied for Extros.

St. George's All-Stars used goals from Sinclair Smith (two) and James Pace to defeat Wolves 3-2.

Prison Officers were held to a 3-3 draw by Park United at Shelly Bay as Dennis Brown (two) and Reginald Pitcher scored for the visitors and Elvis Edness, Chris Davis and George Braithwaite tallied for Park.