Police 92-5 Some tight bowling by Western Stars helped prevent Police from getting close to a seemingly reachable winning target in this Premier Division Open match at Police Field yesterday.

Chasing a total of 145 in an hour, 10 minutes plus two overs, the Police batsmen failed to find any rhythm as bowlers Dale Fox, Allan Brangman, Hasan Durham and skipper Arnold Manders combined to force their opponents to play cautiously on a wicket still damp from early morning showers.

Spinner Durham finished with the best figures of three for 23 off 10 overs while Fox and Brangman both took one for 17 and Manders none for 15 off eight overs.

Police saw their hopes diminish when skipper and opener Dennis Archer and Stevie Lightbourne were both sent back with the score on 34, Archer scoring 10 and Lightbourne one.

Those two removed within a few balls of each other, the Police scoring rate dropped dramatically with the new batsmen forced to use up valuable overs to play themselves in.

Opener Donovan Livingston (26) finished as the top scorer, but when he was out with the score on 73 and 13 overs left, the only possible result was a tame draw. Dwayne Leverock was the only other batsman in double figures with 19.

Earlier Stars were themselves restricted from playing lively shots on the damp wicket.

They lost opener Treadwell Gibbons (22) with the score on 36 before Gregory Sampson (33) and Albert Steede (13) added 37 for the second wicket, taking the score to 73 when Steede was dismissed.

Wickets fell rapidly afterwards with Ferdinand Thorne and Peter Philpott doing most of the damage. Thorne picked up three for 29 off 21 overs with eight maidens while Philpott had three for 28 off 16 overs, five of which were maidens.

Anthony Manders was the highest scorer of the remaining batsmen with 19 while Durham struck 14 and Justin Robinson 13 as Stars crept to a respectable total after batting for some 240 minutes.

Also taking wickets for Police were Dwayne Leverock with two for six off six overs with two maidens while Freston Hurdle and Archer snatched a wicket apiece.

PHC 145 Willow Cuts 148-4 Brian Gibbons and Rodney Fubler combined to take six wickets to help Willow Cuts to this six-wicket victory over PHC at Royal Naval Field.

Gibbons finished with four for 36 off 11.5 overs, including two maidens, while Fubler had two for 24 off 18 overs with eight maidens.

The two bowlers made PHC fight for runs, but not until the visitors had been given a solid start by opening batsmen Alfred Carter and Kevin Dill.

Dill was their top scorer with 55 while Carter followed with 15 and number 10 bat Charles Symonds chipped in with 13.

Carter and Dill put on 64 for the first wicket, but once they were separated the remaining wickets fell with little resistance.

Cuts required just 32 overs to reach their winning target with openers Dwight Basden (37) and Jermaine Warner (38) leading the way. Richard Basden was not out on 25 while Andre Hendrickson stroked 16 and skipper Dexter Basden 10.

Charles Symonds was the top bowler for PHC with two for 39 off 11 overs.