St David’s continued their unbeaten run in the Premier Division yesterday with a comfortable victory over the league champions, their sixth of the season.

Dedicating their season to their late team-mate Fiqre Crockwell, who was murdered three weeks ago, St David’s put the match out of the reach of Rangers when they posted 264 for eight in their 50 overs after winning the toss, with late signing Chris Douglas leading the way with 75. Rangers managed just 134 in 36.4 overs in reply.

“It’s definitely been a rough past three weeks for us but we’ve been hanging tight,” OJ Pitcher, the St David’s captain, said.

The signing of Douglas was timely as he has filled Crockwell’s spot in the top four while Ajuan Lamb has stepped up to take over the wicketkeeping duties.

“We’ve had our moments and it will continue to be rough for the rest of the season, but it has brought us that extra pride and we’re really working hard for Fiqre. Guys have continued to show up for training and put in the work and the results are showing.

“We’re dedicating the rest of the season, including Cup Match and [Eastern] Counties, to him. We’ve got a lot of guys in decent nick right now and as the season goes on that tends to happen. For us to still be undefeated feels good, we have a tough match next weekend against Bailey’s Bay and we’re really looking forward to that.”

Pitcher is already happy with what Douglas has contributed to the team in his two matches since joining from Devonshire Recreation Club, a move that was on the cards before the loss of Crockwell.

“He’s a huge pick-up for one, he’s one of us, a St David’s islander, and it’s good to have him come back to us,” Pitcher said. “He transferred to us before Fiqre’s passing. He scored runs yesterday in the Western Counties [for Willow Cuts] and got 75 today.

“He’s a person I really enjoy having in the team. Ajuan has so far done an excellent job, last week he did a good job against Willow Cuts.”

Lamb helped St David’s get off to a good start, putting on 63 in 13 overs for the first wicket with Delyone Borden, scoring 20. Borden was first out for 27 and Lamb followed just four runs later.

Pitcher and Douglas kept the runs flowing as they added 95 for the third wicket between the sixteenth and 34th overs when Douglas was caught behind off Hasan Durham’s bowling, hitting ten fours and a six.

Pitcher went four runs later on 166 for four in the 35th over, scoring 19, before knocks of 31 and 20 in the middle order by Dion Stovell and Allan Douglas brought up the 200.

Rudell Pitcher, with 16, and Shannon Rayner, with 13, added 33 for the unbroken ninth wicket.

Durham led the Rangers bowling with three for 36, while captain Janeiro Tucker claimed two for 29 and opener Ryan Belboda two for 44. Kevin Tucker and Vernon Eve were costly in their ten over spells, going for 78 and 64, respectively.

Rangers began slowly in their run chase putting just 16 runs on the board in the first ten overs, by which time they were already two wickets down and further behind the run rate.

Curtis Jackson drove a full toss from the first ball of George O‘Brien’s spell straight to Dion Stovell in the covers.

Gerald Simons, the other opener, departed in the eighth over as O’Brien picked up his second wicket. Alex Dore, Ricardo Brangman and Andrew Raynor did pick up the scoring somewhat, Brangman scoring a brisk 21 and Dore 19.

Brangman hit Cejay Outerbridge for a six and four in successive deliveries in the first over of his second spell to remove him from the attack. Soon after Brangman was caught at long-on by George O’Brien to make it 47 for three and Dore followed four overs later on 58 for four.

Raynor was the top scorer with 32 before he was bowled in OJ Pitcher’s first over, while captain Janeiro Tucker gave the home team some hope with a knock of 31, departing after going for a straight six and being caught by Outerbridge at long-off to make it 123 for eight in the 33rd over.

Stovell claimed three for 32 against his former team, while O’Brien, Borden and OJ Pitcher all picked up two wickets.