St. George's 222-4 A few of the Southampton Rangers players were present to see their team's hopes of a first Premier League title since 1980 improve with this six-wicket victory by St. George's at Wellington Oval.

The result ensured that Rangers, idle yesterday, held onto sole possession of first place while Bay, now with three losses in their last four league matches, are all but out of the running for a second straight title.

Their 220 in a match reduced to 46 overs per side because of a late start looked a good total to defend. However, it proved insufficient as St. George's scored 139 in their last 21 overs to win with plenty of wickets intact and 1.5 overs remaining.

That was due in large part to Dean Minors' dashing 73 not out which accelerated the scoring late in the innings after the home team scored at less than four an over for the first half of their overs.

Dexter Smith took 45 balls to score his first 16 runs, though his 28 was important in the context of the match. He put on 32 with Mark Ray (14) for the first wicket and also shared in useful stands of 42 for the second wicket with Sinclair Gibbons (24) and 62 for the third wicket with Jason Lewis who dominated that stand.

Lewis then added a further 51 for the fourth wicket with wicketkeeper Minors, playing only his fifth match of the season, as Lewis completed his 50 with four fours and four sixes before he was trapped lbw by Charlie Marshall.

Minors then took over the senior role as his new partner Ricky Hodsoll was a virtual spectator at the other end during their unbroken stand of 35.

Hodsoll contributed only three as Minors raced past his first 50 of the season before finishing unbeaten on 73 with six fours and six sixes. By the time the winning runs were scored it was 8.16 and the light was fading.

No Bay bowler took more than one wicket, with Clarkie Trott the most economical, finishing with one for 17 from his 10 overs.

Earlier, the Bay innings was propped up by Trott, Dennis Pilgrim and Anthony Braithwaite in the bottom of the innings after St. George's had reduced them to 79-5. Then a stand of 40 in 40 minutes between Stephen Outerbridge and Trott started to turn things around.

Trott was the main supplier of the runs, smashing 30 with two fours and two sixes before an even faster stand of 60 in less than six overs and 24 minutes between Pilgrim and Braithwaite took them from 137 to 197.

Braithwaite departed for 28 which included five boundaries, while Pilgrim was brilliantly run out for 46 by Mackie Crane when attempting a second run to keep the strike during his last wicket stand of 12 with Burton Outerbridge.

Pilgrim stroked four fours and a six in his important knock.

At the top of the Bay innings, Desmond Crockwell scored 33 as Dennis Trott, Irving Romaine and captain Charlie Marshall all went cheaply. Crockwell was bowled behind his legs by David Adams, while Marshall had his off stump knocked back by Hodsoll, scoring just 16.

Hodsoll was the pick of the St. George's bowlers, taking three for 42 from 10 overs while Mark Ray, the seventh bowler used, had two for 26 and captain Herbie Bascome two for 37. David Adams had one for 23 in nine overs.

Bay are now joined on 40 points by Western Stars and St. David's while St.

George's are five points behind in fifth place but with two games in hand.

St. David's 62 Police 56 Even the low scoring Camel Cup final between Bailey's Bay and St. George's has to take a back seat to this one! After bowling out St. David's for a paltry 62 at Police Field, Police were understandably thinking about how easy this victory was going to be. But they made the mistake of thinking St. David's were not going to put up much of a fight. In the context of the match they made a good start with an opening stand of 14 between Dennis Archer and Andrew Rollins which reduced the Police winning target to 49. But when paceman Dale Fox accounted for both openers and then number three bat Nyon Steede, Police found themselves facing a fired up St. David's team at 21-3.

That soon turned into 24-4 and 28-5 as St. David's kept on the pressure, realising they might be able to pull off the most astonishing result of the season. It is by far the lowest winning total for a team batting first.

The previous lowest matches were the 116 Devonshire Rec. scored against Willow Cuts before dismissing them for 81. Also on the same weekend in early July, St. George's were dismissed for 126 in the Camel Cup final and then reduced a powerful Bay team to just 61.

After Archer's 11, the top scorer for Police yesterday was Donovan Livingston with 14 as Police lost their last four wickets for 19 runs to fall seven runs short of victory.

Fox finished with three for 19 from his 10 overs with three maidens, while Lionel Cann supported with two for 20 from 6.5 and Kameron Fox two for 14 off nine. Sammy Robinson had one wicket in his only over, before Cann ended the match by bowling Richard Austin for four after he and Philip Bailey added five for the last wicket.

Teenager OJ Pitcher was the high man in the St. David's batting with 21 as he and Sammy Robinson (12) carried the visitors from a desperate position of 9-5 after just nine overs to 43-6 when Pitcher was stumped off Richard Austin.

Veteran Adrian King and Dennis Archer, who shared the new ball, put St.

David's on the ropes in the first round when Chris Foggo, Landro Minors, Allen Richardson, Lionel Cann and Clay Smith all failed to reach double figures.

Archer finished with figures of three for 15 from six overs while King had two for 16 from eight, with four maidens. Austin kept the wickets falling cheaply with his three for 14 from 4.4 overs while Ferdinand Thorne claimed one for 15.

PHC 204 Warwick 127 PHC beat their more celebrated cricketing neighbours by 77 runs at Southampton Oval after Cal Waldron snapped up four important wickets for just 20 runs off eight overs.

Waldron got Perry Scott, Daniel Morgan, Daniel Caines and Steven Bremar Jr cheaply as Warwick were reduced to 77-6 in reply to the PHC total of 204.

Ritchie Foggo took the fight to the PHC bowlers with 41 late in the innings but once his seventh wicket stand of 45 with Reginald Pitcher ended it proved to be the end for Warwick who lost their last three wickets for just one run.

James Pace claimed two for 38 and Shoron Hunt two for 33.

In the PHC innings, player-coach Pace led the way with 36 while opener Sheridan Ming scored 32 and captain Kallan Johnston 23.

Allan Wilkinson and Daniel Morgan both claimed three wickets, Wilkinson finishing with three for 21 and Morgan three for 29 while Ritchie Foggo had two for 28.

Willow Cuts 115 Western Stars 118-2 Albert Steede followed up his Cup Match half-century with another one to guide Stars to a comfortable victory at St. John's Field.

Steede anchored his side's innings with an unbeaten 53 to help them to an eight-wicket victory over Willow Cuts and keep them just one win behind leaders Southampton Rangers, who had a day off.

Cuts were bowled out for 115, as the Stars attack gave nothing away.

Strike bowler Alan Brangman took three for 20, while spinners Hasan Durham (two for 17) and Arnold Manders (two for 21) both kept it tight.

Shannon Warner was the outstanding Cuts batsman, hitting 40 not out.

Devonshire Rec. 259-8 Somerset Bridge 149 Winston Trott's six-wicket haul helped Devonshire to a crushing 110-run victory at Devonshire Rec. yesterday.

After chipping in with an innings of 27 as Devonshire posted a healthy total of 259, Trott destroyed the Bridge batting, taking six for 36 from 9.5 overs.

Other fine efforts with the bat for Devonshire came from Dennis Williams (44), Wendell Swan (38), Caldron Grimes (31) and Jaja Millet (30). Durwood Cann took three for 53 for Bridge.

Bridge never looked capable of reaching their victory target and one of Trott's victims, Dennis Brangman, was the top scorer with 29.

Leroy Brangman had started promisingly, but after hitting three sixes in his innings of 28, he was unluckily run out immediately after being bowled by a no-ball.

Somerset 230 Cleveland 179 An excellent innings of 72 by Wendell White led Somerset to a fine 51-run victory over Cleveland at Somerset Cricket Club yesterday.

White followed up his first Cup Match appearance by smashing the Cleveland attack for nine fours and two sixes, as he top-scored in the westenders' 230 total.

He was well backed up by Francis Richardson (33), who also proved to be Somerset's most lethal bowler, taking four for 36 from 10 overs.

Paceman David Gibbs took three for 39 as Cleveland collapsed to 83-6.

The visitors hopes of victory were revived by a fine knock of 55 from Carlton Smith, who struck nine fours before being bowled by White.

Cleveland were finally bowled out for 179, as White completed a fine all-round performance by taking two for 34.

The match between Social Club and Flatts was not played because the wicket at Sea Breeze Oval had not been prepared.