Bermuda 87 Jamaica 88-2 It all began so promisingly for Bermuda but by the end the national team were left in shambles after an eight-wicket thrashing at Alpart Sports Club in St.

Elizabeth yesterday.

Openers Albert Steede and Donald Norford put on an impressive 46 in 13.6 overs, a Bermuda record for the first wicket in this competition. But when Steede was caught at square leg off Laurie Williams, the innings disintegrated with few batsmen showing the merit that earned them selection in the first place.

On yet another peach of a wicket, Steede and Norford put Bermuda in the ascendancy for the first time during this tour with aggressive running between the wickets and a few boundaries which were worth the price of admission.

But again it was that man Williams who did the damage and by the time he was finished he had claimed six for 19 in an uninterrupted 10-over spell.

It was only due to the efforts of Lionel Cann (12) and number 10 bat Gregg Foggo (eight not out) that Bermuda briefly flirted with reaching three figures, after earlier losing eight wickets for 15 runs. An incredibly poor performance! Wavell Hinds hit an unbeaten 33, opening bat Leon Garrick 29 and Jimmy Adams 19 not out as Jamaica completed victory with barely a hiccup in 21.1 overs.

"After a good start the middle order let us down,'' said skipper Arnold Manders. "If I have to take the blame, I will shoulder the blame as the captain.

"Clay didn't need to improvise at that stage, so if anyone has to take the blame it would be myself and Clay as senior players. The tail-enders found it a bit hard to adapt because the ball was sliding on to them.'' No truer worlds could be spoken as, with Anthony Amory and Dexter Basden rested in favour of Irving Romaine and Cleon Scotland, the batting line-up was a touch green. And the shots the remaining senior players were out to fell nothing short of abysmal.

But first the good news. Steede and Norford were terrific together, even though it was fleetingly. Norford gained in confidence, first with successive drives through backward point for two and four off Franklyn Rose and then Steede kicked in with a blistering cover-driven four off Patrick Patterson and then an audacious pull through mid-wicket.

In the meantime they ran cheeky singles on anything off the pads and even mishit shots into the pads. The commitment was total and infected the remainder of the team in the pavilion, or so we thought.

Norford brought the crowd, which ultimately grew to over 2,000, to its feet in the eighth over when he square cut Patterson one bounced into the boundary, the stroke beating the previous best of 22 by Clay Smith and Allan Douglas in Guyana last year.

Williams was brought into the attack in the 12th over and Steede greeted him with a flick through square leg that raced away for four. But the livewire medium-pacer would not be denied and got his man two overs later when Steede attempted a pull and gave a simple catch to Garrick at square leg.

Steede batted 57 minutes, faced 38 balls and hit two fours and a five for his 20. It appeared Norford missed his partner for in Williams' next over he top-edged an attempted cut to third man where Hinds accepted the chance.

Norford had a team-high 21 in 69 minutes from 55 balls with two fours.

Suddenly the worried looking expression on the face of Courtney Walsh, having won the toss and put Bermuda in with rain in the forcast, took on a more relaxed look.

Relaxation turned to repture within the next half-hour as Bermuda self-destructed.

Debut boy Irving Romaine was given a hard out first ball to Williams when umpire Basil Morgan adjudged that he gave a legitimate catch to Adams at second slip. Manders tried to hit Nehemiah Perry in his first over clear of Rose on the long-on boundary, against the wind, and the score was now 54 for four.

With only five runs added and in the 24th over, Smith backed away early to give himself room to play a late dab at Perry and was outsmarted by one that stayed low and uprooted the off-stump.

A smart one-handed catch at forward square leg by Walsh removed Janeiro Tucker for two, then Cleon Scotland's debut innings lasted but one ball as he walked inside to a Williams delivery, wafted and watched his leg stump take flight.

Del Hollis did better if only that he faced two balls before being bowled for a duck by Williams and then Cann and Foggo picked away at a combination of Perry, Williams, Rose and Patterson to show the middle-order failures that batting was not that hard after all.

The union was eventually broken by Adams who got Cann to chase a short-pitched leg-spinner and give a catch diving forward to short third man to Perry. The pair batted together for 13 overs and added 24 runs.

The end came two runs later when Foggo and Herbie Bascome miscommunicated with the latter run-out for his second duck on tour.