CUP Match rivals Somerset and St. George's have been urged to get their acts together after making two successive blunders within a span of four months this summer.

That's the view of Warrington (Soup) Zuill, recognised as Bermuda's sports historian specifically for his vast knowledge of the two mains sports, cricket and soccer.

He was provoked into going public with his views this week after the clubs' second gaffe, saying that time had come for them to get things in the right perspective in order to maintain their credibility.

At issue is the public disagreement over the choice of the Cup Match Most Valuable Player and also the clubs' refusal to reschedule a Cup Match trial, which led to the cancellation of a visit from a team of West Indies former Test greats.

"There are times when they have to come up with decisions to please the public," said Zuill. "It's imperative that both Somerset and St. George's make good decisions that favour the public, it's not always about club - without the public Cup Match would not exist."

The loss of the visit of a team headed by former Test skipper Sir Viv Richards, Courtney Walsh and Desmond Haynes to play two matches as part of the annual Testimonial celebrations was tantamount to Bermuda missing out on "a sort of Test", said Zuill.

The Cup Match award was finally settled with sponsors Camel forced to enter the fray and make their own selection after the clubs remained deadlocked after favouring their own players. St. George's went with eventual winner Travis Smith and Somerset doing likewise with their choice, Dennis Pilgrim.

Like many others in the community Zuill was startled by the view of Somerset president Colin Smith that the winner of any such award never comes from the losing club, therefore sticking firmly by his choice of Pilgrim.

But Zuill recalled that Noel Gibbons was bestowed with the same honour back in 1982, becoming the first to win the trophy, and he was on a losing team that year.

"That alone makes Mr. Smith's thinking seem so absurd," said Zuill.

"And the Gibbons case is by no means not the only example, I have on many other occasions seen how similar MVP selections are made with panel's simply supporting the player who contributed more than anyone else on the field of play, whether he was on the losing team or not."

Veteran Zuill recounted how the original committee was selected by the sponsors with the clubs having no input whatsoever, and he reckoned that it should remain that way. He was unaware of how the clubs got involved or even when, for that matter.

"The original committee was selected by Camel Cup, the clubs had nothing to do with it," he said. "The decision was made by the representative of Camel, nobody knew who they were.

"If they are going to continue with the award then I feel that two or three people should be at the game to make a decision and after the game is over, during the intermission prior to the presentation, the chairman of the panel should hand the decison to the home team secretary who will then make the announcement during the presentation.

"What happened this year wasn't necessary at all, it was frustrating to everybody to just watch and have the clubs, sadly I must add, struggle to settle the issue which remained unresolved until the very end when the sponsors rightly moved in and made the decision.

"Here on this island we have a lot of new officers coming into clubs who know very little about events like Cup Match before they are adults, and when a problem arises they have no idea how to deal with it. It's a shame.''

Zuill, whose personal choice was Travis Smith, also expressed concern about the status of such previous trophies as the Pan American Trophy, an award that existed back in the 1950s and was first won by Woodgate Simmons of Somerset.

"There were other trophies awarded at Cup Match at the time and I don't know where they are now. I know they are no longer put up but if they are in a club they should be recognised in some way or other.''

He regarded the handling of the cancelled visit here by a team of foreign West Indies greats for the annual Testimonial match as being a major blow for the cricketing public.

The tour was not sanctioned by the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control after a dispute over conflicting dates could not be settled between the Testimonial commitee and the Cup Match clubs.

The Testimonial committee wanted the two-game tour to include the Saturday prior to the traditional final Cup Match trial when the teams for the mid-summer classic is chosen - but the Cup Match teams refused to accept a suggestion to bring the trials forward to the Thursday.

With the matter remaining unresolved, the Cup Match clubs remaining steadfast in their position to go ahead with the Saturday trial, they got the support of the BCBC and forced the tour to be cancelled.

"It was a great travesty, the clubs and the Testimonial committee should have gone all out to get the matter resolved so that the tour could go ahead. Holding the trial matches on the Saturday is not part of our culture, trial games use to be on a Thursday until we had a five-day work week and this time it would have just been a one-off thing to switch or reach some other resolution," said Zuill.

"We lost a chance to stage a sort of Test in Bermuda, two games that would have given the old, young and the sick who have never had a chance to see the Test players in the Caribbean the opportunity to see them in action in Bermuda against our own players. Even those in hospital would have been inspired to hear such a match-up on the radio.

"We haven't seen squad of West Indies greats here sinice 1955 when Everton Weeks, Sir Garfield Sobers, Camie Smith and others came and St. George's beat them at Wellington Oval."

Zuill said he had always supported the two Cup Match clubs and would continue doing so. But when bad decisions were made somebody had to be accountable and he felt comfortable in speaking out for this reason - in the best interest of cricket.

His reason for picking Travis Smith is that Smith achieved his ten-wicket haul on turf to become the first to pull off the feat while Eugene Hansey of Somerset did his on concrete.