Losing is a term that is becoming synonymous with the Hamilton Parish Peppers this year as they again went down to defeat to a much stronger and better prepared St. David's team yesterday at the Wellington Oval.

Scorers for St. David's were Jerome Laws, who tallied twice, and Kanhai Fray.

The first goal came after 16 minutes when Maxwell Dill was sent through down the right flank. He beat the defender covering on the play and sent in a searching cross to Del Hollis whose first-time shot was defelected to a trailing Laws. Laws wasted no time as he sent a shot just inside the left upright leaving a flat-footed goalkeeper looking in despair.

The game saw many yellow cards and a red card issued on the day by referee Richard Knight who let the players know early that he would not be standing for any nonsense. In the 24th minute of the first half, St. David's Albert Steede was blown down for taking the feet from under Irving Burgess.

However, two minutes later, St. David's were on the scoreboard again when a cleared ball by the defence found Fray running through. The forward picked up the loose ball and outraced Parish's Dennis Trott and shot past advancing Detroy Smith.

St. David's were very unlucky not to go three up in the 44th minute. The play developed as Cal Richardson sent a high, arching cross into the box, which eluded everyone. Fray chased down the ball and neatly flicked over his head to Laws whose six-yard volley was deflected for a corner.

From the corner, Parish survived a frenetic scramble, which resulted in a header going over off the bar.

The second half began much like the first ended with Parish looking really out of synch and breaking down midway into attack. Sensing the urgency of a leader, Parish coach Johnny Nusum brought on Sinclair Gibbons for Ernest Lathan in the 52nd minute.

In the 57th minute, Kacy Simons was shown the yellow card for upending former North Village team-mate Garrett (Punchy) Dill. Four minutes later, Parish committed another flagrant foul. This time Irving Burgess was issued the red card for a foul on Steede.

On a day when Parish were never in the game, things got even uglier when Burgess exited the game. In the 63rd minute of play, a Parish player was again shown the yellow card. This time, Chris Caisey was called for tripping Fray from behind. A minute later, Fray picked up another poor clearance by the Parish defence and sent his shot against a post.

Perseverance by St. David's led them to their third score, in the 76th minute, when Laws latched onto a pass across midfield and outpaced the defence for his second score.

In the 80th minute, Laws was again on the run. Again he outran the defence and lobbed the ball over the head of the stranded 'keeper only to see his effort go just wide of goal.

St.David's: D.Fox, C.Richardson, W.Smith, S.Pitcher, A.Steede, E.Smith, D.Hollis, G. Dill, M.Dill, J.Laws (P.White, 81 mins), K.Fray.

Hamilton Parish: D.Smith, I.Frith, T.Burgess, D.Trott, J.Nichol, C.Caisey, K.Simons, I.Burgess, E.Lathan (S.Gibbons, 52 mins), P.Webb, P.Burgess (G.Place, 82 mins).

Referee: Richard Knight.

Men of the match: John Nichol (Hamilton Parish); Jerome Laws (St. David's).