Bailey's Bay 192 Cleveland 143 Two-and-a-half months ago Cleveland made 190 look a small target when they beat Bailey's Bay by seven wickets in a Premier Division Overs match.

But on Saturday at Lord's when the chance to end a winless streak in the Eastern Counties stretching back 17 years was presented, the Cleveland batsmen choked against champions Bay, falling 50 runs short of their target.

Veteran Allan Douglas, celebrating his 20th year in the Counties, carried the fight to the end with a classy 82 which looked like changing the match.

But few of his team-mates looked willing to stay with Douglas as the pressure proved too much for the Harris Bay team.

They were actually in trouble from the outset when Curtis Jackson moved his feet in front of the stumps to a Clarkie Trott inswinger, did not offer a stroke, and umpire George Francis made an easy lbw decision.

That was in Trott's first over and in the next over Anthony Braithwaite struck twice at the other end, bowling captain Aaron Adams and then having Peter Philpott caught first ball by Trott off a delivery that lifted sharply.

The score was 2-3 and after a mild recovery between opener Carlton Smith and Jason Simons, Douglas was brought to the wicket at 24-4 at the fall of Simons as Trott picked up his third wicket.

The task was a mammoth one but Douglas quickly took charge, scoring 41 of the next 56 runs, sharing in a stand of 41 with Smith for the fifth wicket, but wickets kept falling around him.

At 87-7 there wasn't much hope for the challengers, but Douglas and Andre Smith put on 46 for the eighth wicket to give Bay something to think about.

After Douglas welcomed Charlie Marshall on the ball by hitting him for two sixes and a single in his first over, Marshall got the wicket that killed off Cleveland's last hopes when in that same over he had Smith stumped when going for an unnecessary big hit.

Douglas, running out of partners, tried to push the score along and keep the strike at the same time, but was finally trapped lbw by Marshall 10 runs later and he had barely reached the changing room when Greg Talbot was bowled first ball to end the match.

Douglas hit five sixes and five fours as he came close to scoring his first Eastern Counties century, while the next highest scorers for Cleveland were Carlton Smith with 16, Jason Simons 14 and Andre Smith 13.

Clarkie Trott, a late addition to the Bay team after an injury to Corey Hill, justified his selection by taking four for 60.

Anthony Braithwaite took two for 34 from 12 -- he and Trott bowled the first 22 overs unchanged -- while Marshall bounced back from his expensive first over to finish with three for 16 which clinched victory.

Bay's batting was led by Glenn Blakeney's 56, which saw the first 50 coming in 39 balls. By the time he was fourth out on 110, three overs before lunch, he had hit seven fours and three sixes.

Blakeney took a particular liking to Talbot, hitting him for 26 of the 27 runs the young off spinner gave up in his first two overs. However, Talbot hit back with two important wickets in his second spell as Bay slumped from 156-5 to 171-8 in just seven overs.

Marshall held them together with an important 36 while Irving Romaine scored 20. Dexter Basden hit 22, adding 30 for the first wicket with Roger Trott.

Andre Smith took the first three wickets to fall on his way to three for 40 off 13 overs. Then it was left to the Cleveland spinners, led by Johnny Richardson to finish off the Bay innings.

Richardson, who made his Counties debut in 1973, finished with three for 36 from 5.5 overs while Hasan Durham had two for 38 and Talbot two for 49.

Bay will meet St. David's in the final on August 30.

ALLAN DOUGLAS -- his classy knock of 82 wasn't enough to carry Cleveland into the Eastern Counties final.