dropped in his stride, even though Tucker Sr does not see the logic of leaving out the Bermuda youth team captain.

"I told him not to get caught up in the controversy, but just be cool and keep his head up,'' said Tucker this week. "He is very mature for his age and quite a few people think he's older than 18.'' The dropping of Tucker, a colt last year, and the more experienced Terry Burgess and Rodney Fubler means that the Somerset bowling has been weakened with just two bowlers, Allan Brangman and Wayne Richardson, coming in to replace them. Subsequently their task of bowling St. George's out twice has become all the more difficult.

"It's not much of a bowling team,'' admits John who was captain of Somerset when they lost the cup in 1983. "I was a little surprised they dropped Janeiro. He's been having a pretty good season and even when he went to the International Youth Tournament in Denmark, where there was a lot of strain on him as captain, he performed very well with the bat and ball. From what I heard he led the team very well.'' Added Tucker: "This year they'll depend on three bowlers, Perry Maybury, Allan Brangman and Wayne Richardson, who have got a lot of bowling to do for the two days. I would have picked six batsmen and five bowlers or allrounders.'' John has no doubts Janeiro will develop into a top allrounder for years to come. He has already beaten his father into Cup Match at a younger age, though John had a streak of 18 successive appearances between 1971 and '88.

JOHN TUCKER -- Encouraged his son to be positive and battle back.