St. Georgians Ashton Rayner and Arthur (Bubba) Tucker have lived in Somerset over 30 years, married Somerset women, played football for the Somerset Trojans and even served on committees at the club...but that is where the similarities end.

For while Tucker remains a staunch St. George's supporter in Cup Match, Tucker has long 'come out of the closet' and declared himself a Somerset fan.

The pair have much in common, they both played football for the St. George's Colts and then represented the Somerset Trojans after their move west, married cousins and have expressed their love of that part of the Island.

Tucker, who has worked on the Somerset main gate at Cup Match for the last six years and has a 26-year-old son, Arthur Jr, who plays for the Somerset football team, remains firm in his support of St. George's. He has a sticker on the windscreen of his painting truck proudly declaring him as a 'number one St. George's fan'.

As St. Georgians, both Rayner and Tucker have met with some suspicion in their dealings with some Somerset folk, but generally they have been well received. They aren't the only former St. George's sportsmen living in Somerset, as Charlie Fox and Floyd Postlethwaite, who also played football for the Wellington Rovers and St. George's Colts, also married Somerset women and have lived in Sandys Parish for several years. Fox also played for the Trojans.

"My heart is still in St. George's as far as cricket goes," says Postlethwaite who says he has relatives, including first cousins on his mother's side, in Somerset.

Rayner has been living in Somerset 33 years, first leaving St. George's at the age of 17 and initially moving to Warwick. He will be married to Pastor Lynette (Gibson) for 35 years come September. They have two daughters, Dawna, who now lives in New York, and Asha Laselle.

"Being accepted wasn't a difficult thing for me, I blended right into the community," said Rayner who also played cricket for Somerset and Willow Cuts.

"Knowing the people I knew, I guess I was pretty well accepted to a point. I played cricket for a few seasons for the club, at one time I was captain of the second team, and then moved down to Willow Cuts where I finished.

"I met guys like Eugene (Teddy Bear) Riley and George Brangman when I was living in Warwick and when I came to Somerset those are the two I got around with.

Rayner also served on the house and management committees at Somerset Cricket Club.

"I had one problem which still stands out in my mind today was one afternoon we were up here playing billiards inside the club and it was getting around Cup Match time," he explained.

"It was the first year that I started to acknowledge that I was going to start sticking up for Somerset.

"It was the first time I put the Somerset colours on my truck and it was parked outside the club most of that afternoon. When I came back out the colours were dark blue and light blue, somebody had changed them and wrote on the bottom of my windscreen 'traitor'. I'll never forget that."

Rayner and Tucker were playing for St. George's in the 1969-70 season, when they finished second to Somerset in the league, missing out by just one point.

"I was playing for St. George's while I was living up here," said Raynor who was working on the construction of the new Holiday Inn hotel in St. George's at the time.

"We beat Somerset up here that year, the first time in a long time."

Within a decade, Rayner had changed his allegiance and was supporting the West Enders when they beat St. George's in 1979, their first victory in 20 years in 1979.

"After a period of years people just thought I was from Somerset, but I'm a St. George's boy, born on Cut Road."

At this time of year rivalry between the clubs is at its fiercest. Not surprisingly, Rayner still catches plenty of flak from some of the St. Georgians he grew up with.

"Peter Williams, Neil Paynter and 'Brutus' (Gregory Foggo), really get on me," said an unperturbed Rayner.

Tucker, too, doesn't let him forget where he came from.

"He's like a case of mixed mineral, all mixed up," said Tucker. Rayner just smiles, strong in his conviction.

"What made me go over to Somerset was just what I was involved with," he says in defence.

"Guys used to say, 'you're married, been up here all these years, you're got your papers now, so you better come out and say who you stick up for'."

Some of Rayner's closest friends are Somerset guys, people like Quinton Ible, Charles Fubler, George Brangman, Clifford Russell, Eustace Johnson, Mel Roberts and Wesley Robinson.

His roots actually trace back to St. David's (his mother was a Minors).

"We lived in St. David's for a long time and most St. David's Islanders stick up for Somerset," said Rayner who is the older brother of former St. George's footballer Calvin Rayner.

Such is the nature of the rivalry, Rayner's camp will contain St. George's and Somerset fans and he expects Peter Williams to 'be all over my back over the two days'.

"Down St. George's the only guys who know me are the guys in their 50s and 60s," said Rayner, now in his mid-50s.

"I feel more comfortable going back to St. David's than St. George's.

"I would say that in Cup Match I'm strictly Somerset, but if St. George's are playing somebody else - except St. David's - I would support them. I left St. George's when I was about four or five and stayed in St. David's right up until I went to St. George's Sec.

"I went back over to St. George's when I was in high school."

Tucker moved to Somerset in 1971 and he, too, has adapted to his new surroundings, made many new friends and became a part of the club life. But with a grandfather, Edward (Boar) Watson, who used to play for St. George's in Cup Match, Tucker wouldn't think of changing his allegiance to the blue and blue flag. St. George's player Travis Smith is his godson.

"I mingled in the club and used to spend a lot of time with Stanley Vickers, I still do," says Tucker of his life in Somerset.

"I played one or two seasons for the club, but messed up my leg and never worried with it again. I coached the under-13 (football) team and stopped in 1993. I even started coaching (youth) cricket, we used to play Wendell Smith's team, never beat them though.

"To me Cup Match is what you really feel and I never felt I was Somerset. All the guys knew I was a St. George's supporter and every year we would get in arguments. This is the first year in six years that I'm going to sit down and really watch the game."

If Rayner was smiling in 1979 when Somerset scored a memorable victory, Tucker was not having such a good day.

"I was home by 2.30, my head was hurting," said Tucker who also has a daughter, Selina.

"But you give it and you take it."

Tucker also played a bit of cricket but football was his main sport. He remembers playing cricket as a younger in the street of Shinbone Alley where a certain Clarence Parfitt honed his craft.

"As good as a bowler 'Tuppence' was, he couldn't have his way in that alley," said Tucker.

The alley is many years ago and while there are some fond memories growing up in St. George's, Somerset is now home for the St. Georgians.

"If I was to buy another house I would buy it again in Somerset," Tucker says without reservation.

"I used to stay up here before I got married. (Kenneth) 'Jew Jew' Maybury and I were good buddies and I used to stay at his mother's on weekends."

"November 3 will be 50 years of our friendship, that's how far we go back."

The Mayburys are from Somerset but lived for a short time in St. George's which is the youngest son, Perry, a former Somerset captain, was born.

But it hasn't been all one way, as St. George's had a Somerset man playing for them in Cup Match. In fact the late Clarence (Connie) Simmons, born in Somerset, made his home in St. George's, played his first Cup Match in 1948 and captained the St. George's team between 1957 and 1960.

And Randy Horton, the captain of Somerset's 1979 winning team, even coached the St. George's football team in the 1980s, leading them to the Friendship final in 1986-86 after beating Somerset at Somerset in the semi-finals.