Southampton 205-5 St. David's 100 An unbroken sixth wicket stand of 69 in just eight overs between captain Olin Jones and bowler Clarkie Trott laid the foundation for Southampton Rangers' comfortable 105-run victory at Lord's in the first Champion of Champions final to be sponsored by TeleBermuda International.

Jones, later named Most Valuable Player for his 59 not out which included six fours and a six, held the Rangers innings together after St. David's had them in some early trouble at 58-3 after 19 overs. Dexter Smith was first to go in the ninth over for 12, before Kwame Tucker went seven overs later for 21.

And after Keith Wainwright (15) also went cheaply when the score was 58, the recovery began when Jones and Janeiro Tucker (43) added 70 for the fourth wicket between the 19th and 41st overs.

With victory over the top three teams in the league -- St. George's, Bailey's Bay and Police -- in their last three outings -- St. David's were confident of adding the Champion of Champions to last week's Knockout title.

All three of those wins were achieved by batting last so it was a good toss for them to win, though in the end the target of 206 proved too steep. Half of the team went on a club cruise the night before and the heat eventually took its toll.

Rangers had found runs difficult to come by, though it did get easier in the last few overs when some big hitting by Trott enabled them to reach the four-runs-an-over mark for the first time in the innings. After 10 overs they had just 25 on the board, before moving to 62 by the 20th and 125-3 after 40 overs.

Trott's 42 not out contained two fours and four sixes, including one that dropped into the sea on the last ball of the innings as the 200 came up.

Herbie Bascome and Lionel Cann were the pick of the St. David's bowlers, with Bascome claiming two for 22 from 10 overs with three maidens and Cann returning impressive figures of one for 15 from 10 overs with four maidens.

Whatever all-rounder Cann did with the ball was undone with the bat as he was out first ball of the innings when he slashed at a wide delivery from Garry Williams and gave a catch to Olin Jones at backward point.

The home team never recovered from that as Landro Minors departed in the fourth over to a good low catch by wicketkeeper Kwame Tucker after he got an edge to a delivery from Clarkie Trott at the other end.

At 5-2, St. David's were already in trouble. Even a third wicket stand of 28 in 11 overs between Allen Richardson (19) and Shea Pitcher (10) failed to repair the early damage as Pitcher also fell to a catch behind as Williams picked up his second wicket.

Two more wickets in the 21st and 22nd overs made it 54-5 as Rangers moved closer to their fourth Champion of Champions title and their first since 1990.

Dwayne Steede began his five wicket haul by picking up the wicket of Sammy Robinson for six in his first over. Janeiro Tucker picked up the prized wicket of Richardson the next over when Steede held a mishit pull shot at mid-wicket.

After that St. David's offered only token resistence as Rangers ran through their innings in 36.5 overs with captain Graham Fox finishing with a top score of 25 with three boundaries.

Steede, who took four of the last five wickets, finished with figures of five for 23 from 8.5 overs while Williams supported with two for 16 off 10 overs with four maidens.

"I figured on a big field like this that 200 runs was a lot of runs, especially with the bowling that we have,'' said captain Jones when asked how important was his stand with Trott.

"Runs weren't that easy to come by, you had to put your head down and bat. To make us feel confident we needed something to bowl at and I think the 200 picked the guys up a bit.'' Jones acknowledged that the early wicket of Cann gave his team another lift, especially after Cann's knock of 72 the day before in the semi-finals.

"To see Lionel go first ball was a boost for us because he is good for 70, 80 runs,'' said Jones.

"I guess they sent him early when the field was in to hit over the top and to get him early really boosted everybody. We more or less took it like they were always under pressure and so we just tried to keep the pressure on.

"They were never ahead of the run rate and plus they kept losing wickets.

Everybody was hyped up, we've been talking about this game since the beginning of the season.'' Police 125 St. David's 126-4 Police slumped from 115-1 to 125 all out in the biggest callapse of the season as St. David's won their semi-final by six wickets on Saturday.

Police recovered from 13-1 in the sixth over, when Dennis Archer went early, to 115 by the 31st when the 102-run stand between Peter Philpott (27) and Ferdinand Thorne (80 from nine fours and five sixes) was finally broken.

But 34 minutes and 5.3 overs later the innings was over as the Police batsmen succumbed to the spin of Kameron Fox (five for 30) and Del Hollis (three for 13). The last seven Police batsmen all failed to score.

Police made St. David's work for their victory by having them 39 for two but Cann stood between them and an upset as he scored 72 of the first 90 runs from six fours and two sixes before he was third out. Victory was a mere formality after that as Sammy Robinson scored 28 not out. Philpott took two for 26.