Clay Smith's historic century against the Windward Islands in Sunday's Red Stripe Bowl clash has given Bermuda a ray of hope ahead of their next match against hosts Jamaica in Alpart, St.Elizabeth.

For until he and Anthony Amory embarked on a 104-run partnership for the third wicket, the outlook was dim and the consequences dire.

Coach Allan Douglas was fully prepared to work his charges into the ground after a miserable effort in the field and the woeful batting against Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday.

Dawnley Joseph's unbeaten 153 prompted a convincing, 125-run win by the Windwards but by the end of the day the mood in the Bermuda dressing room was very upbeat; their tour had been saved, and the hard looks on the faces of no-nonsense manager Randy Horton and coach Douglas were replaced by twinkles in the eyes.

"'The way we played against Trinidad, it was like we were just sitting there watching, like pedestrian passengers,'' commented Douglas yesterday. "And when we bowled yesterday, the bowling was without energy, lacked enthusiasm and the fielding was well below par; not what we like.

"I was saying to myself, `Oh man, where are we going to go from here?' But those guys (Smith, Amory and Arnold Manders) came through with the bat.'' A glance at the scorebook showed that close to 70 percent of the Windwards' runs came in boundaries, an astonishing figure which clearly suggests that the Bermuda bowlers are not up to the task at present.

Their margin for error is minute in that the front-line batsmen seen thus far are prepared to punish anything loose and simply put, with the notable exception of fast-medium Roger Blades during his opening bursts, the seam attack is too slow to bowl short or up in the block.

The slower bowlers are just that; too slow. Del Hollis had his moments in the Trinidad & Tobago match but still went for over six an over and then worsened against the Windwards while skipper Manders' drifting off-spin has been ineffective altogether.

In the meantime, one out of three is not bad and coach Douglas is more than hopeful as he speaks of the `one'.

"We had set some targets and we got pretty close to them. They batted the complete 50 overs, lost only four wickets and Clay got a masterful hundred.

"The partnership between him and Amory was superb. To me, the partnership was worth more than what it says on paper. If (Bermuda) people would have seen it and seen the application, it was worth double. Then Arnold came in and he seems to be batting really well with...the captaincy.'' Indeed, the numbers three, four and five batsmen looked the part in compiling 166 runs for the second and third wickets, but there still has to be some concern with the start.

Albert Steede looked good against Trinidad and Tobago in making 33 until Ian Bishop made a mess of his centre stump, but then the poor habit he has of shuffling in his crease against the quicks proved his undoing against Nixon McLean, whether he got a touch during the debatable lbw call or not.

The struggle for rookie Dexter Basden is nothing more than technical. He played one confident shot in the opening match before falling caught behind and got in line against Casper Davis to good effect for one over the next day.

But the tendency to get forward early and play defensively too far away from his body is a trait bowlers here are picking up on quickly, i.e. back of driving length on or about off stump.

For Clay Smith, the century was more than welcome, especially given the atrocious nature of his first-ball duck to Mervyn Dillon in the opening match.

"It was very difficult early on,'' said Smith. "I was picking the fielders a lot and couldn't penetrate. I had to be disciplined and realise that the longer I stayed there I would eventually pick the gaps. Once I got to fifty I told myself not to throw it away because last year I got to fifty-odd and sixty and then threw it away. Getting a ton was like a burden off my back and hopefully this will carry on to the next game against Jamaica.'' Those who have followed Smith's career will know that he is not one to shy away from self-aggrandisement in the middle of the pitch when things are going well for him and that is not necessarily a compliment. But on Sunday he found a foe in Windwards left arm spinner Roy Marshall.

The debate began from the moment that Smith smashed Ian Allen for three successive boundaries to reach 42 and continued throughout the innings.

"To me that was a psychological thing,'' explained Smith of the confrontation, which ultimately spilled over to fast bowler Casper Davis.

'`(Marshall) started to talk and I knew that once I had him talking I was on top. It was a confidence-booster.'' In the end, it proved a huge boost in spirits for Douglas and the Bermuda team, making yesterday's training session far more bearable.

"We're looking now on working on just two things,'' said Douglas before heading to the University of West Indies for training. "A couple of players with their fielding, i.e. getting in faster to the ball and our bowlers, because other than Blades who has bowled superbly and Amory who bowled one match good, our bowlers have been struggling.

"Our fielding was reasonably good in the first game, our batting came through yesterday even though we didn't get 300. But we stood up to one of the better bowling attacks in the Caribbean, the Windward Islands. Now we have to put the pieces of the puzzle together.'' Bermuda leave for Mandeville, Manchester, this afternoon, about a three-hour drive east of Kingston and they return to the capital on Thursday, hopefully with spirits as high as they are presently.

It is anticipated that Gregg Foggo will see his first action in place of Roger Blades. The only injury concern at present is Cleon Scotland who twisted an ankle in the Windwards match while on as substitute.

In other tournament action, thus far Guyana have made a comfortable start in Zone B with a seven-wicket win over Canada while the Leeward Islands beat Barbados by 21 runs in a match held over until Sunday because coloured gear had not arrived in time.

Scores: Canada 179 all out in 50 overs (Paul Prasad 61; N.McCarrell 3-32), Guyana 180-3 in 50 overs (Clayton Lambert 74, Andrew Gonsalves 54).

Leeward Islands 202-8 in 50 overs (Sylvester Joseph 84 not out, Keith Arthurton 50; Ottis Gibson 3-43). Barbados 181 in 45.1 overs (Floyd Reifer 80, Philo Wallace 47, Ronald Powell 4-27).