Southampton 221-9 Willow Cuts 136 Western Counties champions Southampton Rangers saw off what should have been their toughest challenge with considerable ease on Saturday at White Hill, winning by 85 runs to advance to the third round.

The win was due largely to Clevie Wade's top knock of 70, which made the final total of 221 a stiff challenge on a field with a slow outfield. Tight bowling by Rangers assured that Cuts never got close to their target.

Willow Cuts had an early setback in their chase for victory when openers Dwayne Basden (8) and Jermaine Warner (4) departed in the seventh and 10th overs with just 29 runs on the board.

Rangers kept on the pressure by removing Dwight Basden (7) in the 12th over and Shannon Warner (1) in the 15th to have the challengers in early trouble at 35-4.

There was a big enough recovery for the fifth wicket between captain Dexter Basden and Gladwin Edness to suggest Willow Cuts would still make a strong push for victory. The pair added 45 in eight overs as Edness decided to attack the bowling.

The dashing middle order batsman, who holds the counties record of 206 (against Somerset Bridge in the two-day final in 1995), threatened another big score when he got off the mark with two sixes off Clarkie Trott on his way to a top score of 30 which came from four sixes and a four. There were just two singles in his innings which ended when he went for another big hit off Carl Garzette and skied a catch to Rangers captain Olin Jones at cover point. That dismissal made it 80-5 after just 23 overs and when two more wickets went down before 100, including that of captain Dexter Basden, Willow Cuts had all but given up the fight.

Kevin Fubler made it interesting with 22 late in the order as he added 30 for the ninth wicket with Reggie Tucker. That only prolonged the inevitable as part time bowler Keith Wainwright was brought on for two overs of spin and claimed the wickets of Fubler and Tucker in his first 11 deliveries to end the match.

Wainwright had two for 10 while three other Rangers bowlers also had two wickets, with Ryan Belboda taking two for 25, Trott two for 30 and Williams two for 45. Jones gave up just 19 runs in his eight overs which yielded a wicket.

Earlier, player-coach Clevie Wade pulled Rangers out of early trouble at 43-3 after 16 overs as he stroked three fours and two sixes in a patient knock of 70.

Willow Cuts struck as early as the third over when guest player Treadwell Gibbons fell to a catch by Dwight Basden off Rodney Fubler who also removed the other opener, Wainwright, in the 13th over when the score was 36.

Wainwright and Michael Brangman were the next high men for Rangers with 21 while Jones scored 16.

Kevin Fubler had the best bowling figures of the match with three for 18 from 10 overs. Charles Swan, wicketless in the his first spell and then hammered for two consecutive sixes by Wade on his return, got his revenge the next ball when Wade was caught behind. Swan finished with three for 49 while Rodney Fubler had two for 27.

However, Cuts missed a quality fifth bowler as Trevor Dickinson's 73 runs, along with 41 extras, enabled Rangers to reach a target that proved out of their reach. Richard Basden was a bigger miss to Cuts in both the batting and bowling than the three players Rangers were without -- Janeiro Tucker, Kwame Tucker and Dexter Smith.

Cuts conceded some 26 wides, while Rangers were even more generous in that department, giving up 27 wides in their 33 extras.