Western Stars may have been wounded but, judging by the look on veteran Arnold Manders' face, it wouldn't be wise to write the defending league champions off yet.

Stars were beaten by Cleveland last Saturday at St.John's Field and then suffered an embarrassing eight-wicket away defeat to Southampton Rangers the following day.

It was the first time in well over a decade the urban club had lost back-to-back matches, something Manders hopes was just a rare fluke.

The veteran attributes a lack of proper batting practice as a major factor that led to his team's recent slump.

"I think that was a first for a long time since I first started playing cricket," said Manders yesterday. "I guess we haven't put in the work that were are used to because we haven't had the facilities down at the club."

Manders said his team were currently training four times a week but without batting practice in the nets.

"Albert (Steede) arranged for us to go over to Saltus (Grammar School) to try and get some nets, so we haven't done a real lot of batting and that's where we have been struggling. Willow Cuts had us in trouble, even though we got 260. But at one stage we were 130 for six," added Manders.

Despite lacking in the batting department, Manders said he was pleased with the bowling and fielding aspect of Stars' game.

"Our bowling is coming along and our fielding. We haven't dropped any catches and right now it's just our batting and staying to the wicket are the problems," added the Berkeley Institute Physical Education teacher.

Reflecting upon Sunday's crushing defeat to Southampton, Manders said: "We had some dubious umpiring decisions go against us. But Rangers played extremely well and Janeiro (Tucker) took some exceptionally good catches which eventually saved them because I think that we were rebuilding at that stage when he took a couple of good catches."

Last weekend, Stars experimented by pushing several of their younger batsmen up the order. But according to Manders, that won't happen again.

"This is definitely a rebuilding year for us. But the job did not get done with the youngsters at the top of the order so they will have to go back to their regular positions and we will probably go back to our regular batting line-up."

And to those teams who believe Stars are down for the count? Manders reckons it's still early days.

"Two losses. We aren't far from the leaders. We have two wins and two losses while the leaders have three wins and one loss. The league is still wide open and anybody can still win it and there's still a very long way to go. And anything can happen," he said.

Manders also commented on the possible disciplinary action that may be forthcoming to team-mate Jermaine Postlethwaite for publicly voicing his opinions over the Combined KO Cup that Stars won last season.

"It wasn't even criticism," he said. "What's criticism when you win a trophy and you don't get it? He was only stating a fact."

Stars face Social Club this Saturday at St.John's Field where they will open the defence of their Central Counties crown.