Champions 2000 competition, with Tropical Storm Florence threatening to wreak havoc.

Cricket can ill afford another washout of the magnitude of last week's, which forced the abandonment of two Knock-Out Cup matches, causing scheduling nightmares due to the shortage of dates -- and fields -- available.

Standing in the most perilous position is today's semi-final between Western Counties champs Southampton and Eastern counterparts, St. David's at Devonshire Rec., with the storm due to have arrived early this morning.

Regardless of the forecast both sides were yesterday making final preparations for what promises to be a catatonic clash -- one way or the other storm or no.

St. David's enter wearing the favourites' tag based on a convincing victory in the league two weeks ago, however Southampton have assured some payback, with senior player Keith Wainwright pulling no punches.

"We have a stronger team and more batsmen in form and Devonshire Rec. field certainly suits us,'' said Wainwright, fully recovered from a flu bug that hindered him a week ago.

"Clay says that we're not a very deep team, but I would have him look at the batsmen he has and then take a look at the league's batting statistics -- the top 20 -- and see how many of ours are in there compared to his...and I would then ask him how deep do they go.'' Questioned as to the previous encounter where the Islanders beat them by 104 runs, scoring 248 to Rangers' 144, Wainwright said that he accepted that as a fair result on the day, however noted how 119 of the runs came from the bat of Glenn Blakeney, who was dropped on 20 and is ineligible for today's meeting.

Meanwhile, Rangers have included opener Dexter Smith as a guest player to strengthen a batting order already with the likes of Olin Jones, skipper Janeiro Tucker, Kwame Tucker, Cleavie Wade and Wainwright.

"Looking at the stats, the laws of averages tell us that at least three of us will come good with the bat and score at least 40 runs,'' he said. "Looking at St. David's only Clay and Glenn are on form at the moment, and Glenn won't be there, so I'm not that concerned about St. David's.

"If we hold on to our catches and have only a minimum of no balls we should comfortably go into Sunday.'' Clarkie Trott also comes in to bolster a bowling attack containing an on-form Garry Williams, but control will be the key taking in the small confines of the Rec.

Sunday presents a whole new challenge for the side that emerges from Saturday's ashes, with all conquering Western Stars waiting in the wings.

Stars have been unbeaten in all competitions thus far and have beaten both semi-finalists.

The dates and venues for Bermuda's matches at the Red Stripe Bowl were revealed yesterday, with the Island playing three matches in Antigua and one in Anguilla. In all Bermuda will play four matches in a span of five days, starting October 11.

Schedule: October 11 -- Bermuda v Leeward Islands (Antigua); October 12 -- Bermuda v Cayman Islands (Antigua); October 14 -- Bermuda v Windward Islands (Anguilla); October 15 -- Bermuda v Guyana (Antigua).

Dexter Smith: Rangers' guest.