Southampton 229-8 Devonshire 230-7 League champions Southampton Rangers suffered a major blow in their push for a second straight title, going down by three wickets at Devonshire Rec.

Rangers badly missed their captain Janeiro Tucker and wicketkeeper-batsman Kwame Tucker -- both on tour in Canada with the Bermuda national team -- as Devonshire reached their winning target with only eight balls remaining.

Despite an opening stand of 127 between Wendell Swan (75) and Anthony Amory (60), Rec. still had to scramble in the closing overs to pull off the upset as Rangers bowled some tight overs.

After Amory was run out, Swan found another willing partner in Ricky Brangman Jr. who added 27 in a second wicket stand of 47 before he, too, was run out.

That signalled a collapse as the home team lost three more wickets in the space of nine runs to be 183-5.

A stand of 30 between Rudolph Smith (10) and Winston Trott Jr. (13) proved very useful as it took Devonshire on to 213 when Trott was bowled by Garry Williams. Five runs later Smith was also bowled by Williams, leaving Dennis Williams to guide the team home with three vitals fours in his unbeaten knock of 17. Williams and T.Ball put on 12 runs for the unbroken eighth wicket.

Clevie Wade claimed two for 32 and Garry Williams two for 43 in a losing caused for Rangers, a result that boosted unbeaten Western Stars' hopes of winning the league title.

Earlier, high man for Rangers was number three bat Olin Jones iwth 60 not out while opener Keith Wainwright scored 17 and player-coach Clevie Wade 30. Omar Amory claimed four for 57 from 10 overs of spin while Anthony Amory claimed two for 33.

PHC 209-9 St. George's 211-8 St. George's had to go down to the wire before beating PHC at Wellington Oval by two wickets with only 10 balls remaining.

PHC set the home team a challenging target after a good start which saw an opening stand of 55 between Arthur Richards (17) and Sheridan Ming (38). All but six of Ming's runs came in boundaries as he hit eight fours and his innings inspired number three bat Mark Smith who scored 66 from six fours and two sixes.

The St. George's attack was missing captain Herbie Bascome who is in Canada, while Mark Ray had to work. Three St. George's bowlers claimed two wickets each, Travis Smith taking two for 35, Eugene Foggo two for 41 and Graham Fox two for 47.

Ryan Steede, who shared the new ball with Gregg Foggo, had a good spell, claiming one for 32 from 10 overs.

After being 132-3 at one stage, St. George's slipped to 174-7 as PHC refused to concede defeat, though they were let down by some dropped catches at crucial stages.

Steede was high man for St. George's with 60 from 10 fours while teenager Detroy Smith, who opened the batting with Dexter Smith, scored 30 and captain Dean Minors 28 not out in the tailend.

Shoron Hunt, Charles Symons and James Pace all claimed two wickets for PHC.

Bailey's Bay 305 Cleveland 260 Cleveland fell 45 runs short of victory at Sea Breeze as the eight overs they were penalised for slow bowling probably cost them victory.

Cleveland were only allowed to bat 42 overs but they still made a gallant effort as Peter Philpott scored 88 and captain Aaron Adams, opening the innings, 56.

Cleveland had a 51 opening stand, which was interrupted by Jeremy Fray going off injured, and a second wicket partnership of 87 between Adams and Philpott took Cleveland almost to the halfway mark of their victory target. Carlton Smith chipped in with a vital 28 in the middle order but another big score was needed to pull off the victory.

Clarkie Trott took three for 33 and Irving Romaine three for 37.

Romaine led the way in the Bay batting with 74 while opener Ricky Hill scored 69, Cal Dill 43 and Clarkie Trott 24 not out.

Jason Simons, who took off the gloves to bowl three overs, finished with four for 16 to lead the Cleveland bowling while Aaron Adams had three for 50 and Philpott, who shared the new ball with Harry Rawat, two for 23.

Flatts 190 Warwick 193-6 Warwick surprised Flatts with this four wicket triumph at Southampton Oval as Daniel Morgan made the visiting attack appear ordinary in the face of explosive batting.

Morgan hit an unbeaten 84, finding an able partner in Reginald Pitcher, who tallied 24 not out.

Pitcher earlier did the bowling damage, running through Flatts' line-up to return figures of six-for-23, with assistance from Hoyt Zuill, who took two wickets.

Top bat for Flatts was Quinn Outerbridge with 60 not out, while Gershon Gibbons registered 32.

Herbie Bascome: on tour with the national team and missing from the St.

George's attack.