The war of words between east end rivals Bailey's Bay and St. George's is heating up as the 1998 season winds down.

At stake is bragging rights as the best team of the season, a claim Bay captain Charlie Marshall will be making if his side win the Knockout Cup to go with the Overs League title they lifted on Sunday.

Marshall was quoted yesterday as saying that victory over St. George's in the Knockout Cup would establish them as the best team of the season.

But St. George's player-coach Wendell Smith -- a good friend and fishing companion of Marshall's -- thinks Bay would be making an unfair claim even if they did beat St. George's in the Knockout final.

"Charlie must have too much salt water in his brain,'' said Smith.

"The only reason they won the Overs was because they didn't play us.

"Bailey's Bay cannot make a claim to being the best overs team in Bermuda because they won a title without playing the team that has exhibited the greatest form overall, in the Overs, Camel Cup and Open.

"In Open cricket we won all of our matches except one (Southampton Rangers) that was drawn and didn't start until 3.00 p.m.. The fact is we were made to win the Open league playing one game less than everybody else.'' Bay's only loss this season came against St. George's in the Open League while their Overs clash never materialised after rain washed out the fixture at Sea Breeze Oval. In the end Bay won the league title with a better net run rate after the teams were tied on points.

"How do you think we feel being undefeated but not being (Overs) league champions?'' Smith asked.

"It would be nice to be able to play Bailey's Bay in this match. If you have some weak teams in this division one team can bat first and score 300 runs, but we decided to send teams in, knock them down cheap and pass their total.

"They obviously went the other way and reaped the dividends, but does that mean that they are better than us? Halfway through the season they made some tactical moves that were smart.'' With St. George's being understrength with at least four players missing -- including Clay Smith and Dean Minors in school -- Bay are favourites to win the Knockout Cup. And while Bay should again prove too strong for St. David's in the semis, St. George's cannot afford to look beyond Police who can lay claim to being the third best team this season.

"We had to make do without a lot of key players, but yet we've managed to keep winning,'' said Smith.

"There is no guarantee we're going to get past Police, because with Peter Philpott, Dennis Archer and Ferdinand Thorne anything can happen.

"If Bay beat us in the Knockout they will have beaten us without two of our key players, so I wouldn't put any merit on that. We played Police on Sunday without Clay, Dean and Eugene Foggo and we still got by Police.

"They can beat us in the Knockout but I'll still feel we are the best team this season. One accomplishment we're very proud of is having beaten Western Stars four times in one season, and all four were convincing victories.'' WENDELL SMITH -- believes St. George's will be number one regardless of the Knockout final result.