weather allowed play in only two opening day Premier games.

Both matches -- Devonshire Rec against Willow Cuts, and Cleveland against Western Stars -- ended in tame draws after delayed starts, while the third scheduled game between Southampton and St. George's never got going because of a wet Southampton Oval pitch.

Devonshire 198-6 Willow Cuts 30-1 With the odds against Willow Cuts scoring 168 in the final 20 overs, they accepted the offer of bad light from umpires Randy Butler and Lester Harnett.

A draw was always on the cards after the match started late at 12.30 because of early morning rain. Devonshire, put in by Cuts, took 67 overs to score their runs before declaring at 5.30.

In the 10 overs they faced, Cuts replied with 30-1 before captain Dexter Basden, after some deliberation, accepted the offer from the umpires at 6.27, just as the last 20 overs were about to start.

Devonshire would have been pleased with the first batting performance of the season as Dexter Smith and new signing Alfred Carter added 51 for the first wicket in 66 minutes.

Smith followed up his 98 in a Cup Match trial last weekend with 38, including six fours and a six, while Carter scored 28, including four boundaries.

After losing two wickets for five runs to slip to 94-3, captain Anthony Amory and Leon Place shared in the biggest stand of the day when they put on 79 for the fourth wicket. Amory contributed 23 while Place top-scored with 53 in 112 minutes off 83 balls.

Three Cuts bowlers took two wickets each; Ossie Hinds two for 40 off 12 overs, Richard Basden two for 47 from 20 and Kevin Fubler two for 25 in 14.

Cleveland 237 all out Western Stars 30-0 Jason Simons and Johnnie Richardson rescued Cleveland from a perilous position with a stand of 92 against Stars at a gloomy Wellington Oval yesterday.

It helped their side run up a total of 237 all out after they had been put in by Stars on a pitch with some residual surface dampness following the loss of two hours play due to rain. That left Stars with just 16 meaningless overs to bat and with Albert Steede in imperious form, they replied with 30-0 from just 2.5 overs before bad light halted play for the day.

Simons and Richardson had come together after three wickets had fallen at the same score to reduce Cleveland to 57-4.

The middle order pair set about rebuilding an innings which had previously advanced comfortably, Cartlon Smith (43) and Wayne Smith (12) putting on 48 for the first wicket.

Simons' initial watchfulness gave way to some fine strokes as he smashed four fours and three sixes in his 59 before he became slow left-armer Hassan Durham's fourth victim with the score on 149.

Richardson kept going after Simons' downfall, adding 50 with Anthony Bascome, whose quickfire 43 included two massive sixes, before succumbing to the leg spin of Justin Robinson shortly after completing a crucial half-century.

Robinson mopped up the lower order to finish with 3-41 while Durham returned the impressive figures of 5-98 from 30 overs.

Steede then treated a sparse crowd to some delightful strokes, hitting three fours and a six in his 24 not out as Carlton Smith conceded 16 in a wayward single over.

Two of yesterday's three First Division matches were not played. No umpires were assigned for the Somerset-Somerset Bridge match while the game between St. David's and Flatts was postponed because of early rain.

Allan Wilkinson claimed four for 31 and Hoyt Zuill two for 27 as Warwick beat nine-men Social Club by seven wickets at Nationals. Social Club could only manage 100 with Shawn Spencer scoring 48 and Jackie Durham Sr, long retired, hitting 17 after being called out to make up the numbers.

Durham also claimed two for 22 from five overs of spin but could not prevent Warwick from winning comfortably. Jeffrey James scored 38 and Daniel Caines 26.