Devonshire Cougars 5 PHC 1

Raymond Beach can't have been brilliant company on Christmas Day.

While everyone else was enjoying their cassava pie and a little too much eggnog, the Cougars' lethal marksman must have been casting his mind to Boxing Day and exactly how much havoc he could wreak on the PHC defence.

Because almost as soon as Andrew Bascome unleashed him from the big cats' bench on December 26, he set about demolishing the Zebras defence with all the vigour, ruthlessness and precision of a champion turkey carver.

He may not have scored immediately, but almost as soon as he entered the field, PHC's impressive run of results was in clear and immediate danger.

The three goals that he fired in at Lord's were all perfect examples of why Beach is the Island's form player.

Being a Cougar is easy when Beach, pictured left, is on this form, lift the ball over the top or down the channel and Mr. Goals will lob, slide or thunder home around, under, above or through the opposing keeper.

Playing with a style not dissimilar to the one used by Ian Wright on his way to becoming an Arsenal legend, Beach scored a Boxing Day hat-trick to savour, and one which consigned an unfamiliar PHC side to an inevitable defeat.

The Cougars, again resting Heys Wolfe and Beach, dominated the first half against a Zebra starting XI that contained just Blenn Bean from the six PHC players picked for Digicel Cup duty.

The Champions Cup again failed to fully capture the imagination of the crowd, although this proved to be one of the better games in the festive competition so far, albeit again without many regular players.

Cougars, constantly reminded by Bascome to keep the ball on the ground, played their usual dominant attacking football, with Domico Coddington again proving to be a handful, as he had against Dandy Town last Thursday.

Clear chances were hard to come by for either side, but it was the big cats who inevitably broke the deadlock just before the half-hour mark when Darius Cox dissected the Zebra defence with a lofted ball from the halfway line and Aljame Zuill darted in to slip the ball home.

The lead would have remained until the half had the Cougars defence not made an uncharacteristic mistake which gave PHC their best, and probably only, chance to equalise.

Eight minutes to go before the break and Quincy Hunt was the recipient of a sloppy pass across the defensive line, allowing him to squeeze the ball past Ricardo Brangman, although he had to put his celebration on hold until the linesman's flag confirmed the ball, which trickled against the post, had indeed crossed the line.

On paper, the game was nicely poised at half-time - and then the substitution slip confirming it was Beach-time was handed in to the referee's dressing room.

A series of long balls allowed the striker to startle the Zebra herd on a regular basis and his first goal came after 73 minutes, sliding the ball past Brangman again.

Zuill grabbed his second before Beach, on the break again, slipped first one under Brangman and then another delightfully over Brangman to seal victory and his place as clearly the Island's most potent marksman.

The comfortable win puts Cougars in Sunday's final and Beach, whether he starts or is left like a coiled spring on the bench, is a favourite to add to his four-goal Champions Cup tally.

Cougars: R. Brangman, D. Cox, O. Butterfield, J. Simmons, R. Swan (R. Robinson, 77), A. Tyrell (H. Wolfe, 54), K. Steede, J. Butterfield, C. Caisey (Beach, 45), A. Zuill, D. Coddington.

PHC: J .Wade, M. Lambe, A. Furbert, D. Outerbridge (R. Richardson, 70), J. Mallory, K. Warner, J. Ball, B. Bean, L. Bascome, D. Hunt (V. Perinchief, 76), Q. Hunt (J. Raynor, 75).

Booked: D. Outerbridge (PHC)

Men of the Match: R. Beach (Cougars) A. Furbert (PHC)

Referee: Anthony Mouchette.