After pelting the Police attack last Sunday with an undefeated 152 -- spearheading Western Stars to a 157-run victory -- Albert Steede will likely relish the thought of facing them again in today's Central Counties final.

Champions Police go into the match at Police Field (11.00 a.m.) as the underdogs.

But despite last Sunday's one-sided triumph, Stars skipper Arnold Manders is expecting the opposition to be more formidable this time around.

Last weekend saw Stars score 289-4 and Police surrender for a meagre 132 all out.

"I feel confident going up against them in the Central Counties final, but you can't underestimate any team ... right now in overs cricket you drop your guard and somebody can take a victory away from you so easily,'' said Manders.

"Police are known to be fighters and I am sure that they will be at full strength for this match. We can't afford to measure this game up by what happened last Sunday, we have to be ready for a new game.'' Steede has exploded with the bat and the skipper isn't surprised, fully aware of his top player's batting ability.

"Albert came back from school in Jamaica in superb physical condition and obviously he did a lot of work while there and he is now reaping the rewards,'' said Manders.

With the Central Counties now within their grasp for the first time since they lost the cup to Police in the final of the 1996 series, Manders also has his sights on the Knockout Cup, having reached the semi-finals with a victory over St. David's last Saturday.

"A lot of our younger players haven't won the Knockout and we have set that as one of our goals. We are at the semi-final stage now and we would like to go on and win it and obviously we would like to win back the Central Counties as well,'' he said.

"It's going to be a bit hard to win the league title after being deducted two points from PHC, but we just can't afford to drop any more points. We have to also hope that somebody else can beat Bailey's Bay and St. George's other than us.'' In league action tomorrow, unbeaten Bailey's Bay should break a two-way tie for first place when they travel to Somerset to meet the west enders, while joint leaders St. George's have a bye.

All eyes will be on Bay batsman Charlie Marshall who has stroked three successive centuries.

County teams will meet each other as Devonshire and Stars of the Central Counties clash at the Rec, Cleveland and Flatts of the Eastern Counties play at Wellington Oval and Western Counties teams, Warwick and Somerset Bridge play at Southampton Oval.

Police are at home to Southampton Rangers while Social Club entertain Willow Cuts at St. John's and James Pace leads PHC against his former team, St.

David's, at Sea Breeze Oval.