Wendell Smith made a stoic 62 and Kenny Phillips delighted with another quickfire half-century as St. George's marched toward the league championship yesterday.

The 62-run win at Wellington Oval leaves the league title unresolved but the east-enders are perilously close to replacing Western Stars as champions.

Stars, also victorious yesterday, remain four points behind, but with three games left for St. George's against PHC, Police and Warwick, even they have to consider their chances slim.

St. David's quickly reduced St. George's to 47 for three but Wendell Smith found partners in Ricky Hodsoll (19), Dean Minors (17) and Lewis Foggo (17) before giving way to Phillips. Smith hit eight fours and batted two hours and 47 minutes.

Phillips came to the wicket with nine overs remaining and put the St. David's bowlers to the sword with some monstrous hitting.

St. George's were 152 for six when Smith was dismissed and Phillips cracked 58 of the remaining 64 runs, with five sixes and four fours coming in his 30-minute knock.

Herbie Bascome claimed three for 30 in 8.1 overs for St. David's and Oliver Pitcher took two for 36 in five.

St. David's made slow progress in their chase for the runs and that eventually got them into trouble.

The first wicket fell on 22 in eighth over and the second in the 11th with the total 26.

Opener Shea Pitcher looked steady and he was joined by St. David's most experienced player, Allen Richardson.

But after Pitcher was out lbw for 22, playing across the line at Clay Smith with the score 44, the pressure mounted.

Lionel Cann lasted only 16 minutes and made 13 before he skied a return catch to Eugene Foggo, then skipper James Pace was out for a two-ball duck that left the visitors in deep trouble at 63 for five.

Richardson and Oliver Pitcher (26) added 46 for the sixth wicket at which time the latter hit David Adams to deep mid-wicket where Greg Foggo took a comfortable catch.

St. George's moved into celebratory mood after Adams bowled Reginald Pitcher for 12 and then had top scorer Richardson caught at short cover by Dexter Smith for 42 after hitting a six and two fours.

Adams finished with four for 22 from 6.4 overs, Phillips two for 19 from eight and Clay Smith two for 38 from 10.

Western Stars 221-8 Flatts 189 Western Stars managed to maintain their hold on second place, but it took a lot of sweating for them to pull off this 32-run victory over Flatts at Devonshire Rec. field in a game reduced to 45 overs because of a late start.

Batting first the favoured Western Stars reached a seemingly respectable total thanks to some good batting by Jeff Richardson who stroked 61.

Others among the runs were Hasan Durham with 24, opener Gregory Sampson 23, Andre Manders and Cleon Scotland with 22 apiece and skipper Gary Brangman 20 not out.

They lost opener Anthony Foggo (five) at 11, but were assured of reaching a decent score when Sampson and Manders put on 50 for the second wicket.

Troy Dean and Troy Bean, who caused a temporary setback when they dismissed some of the middle-order batsmen, finished with five wickets among them.

Dean had three for 37 of 10 overs while Bean had two for 54 off nine overs.

Brandon Woolridge had two for 27 off five overs.

Flatts had an early setback when they lost opener Andrew Richardson (nought) with just two runs scored, but were pulled clear off further danger when the other opener Troy Dean and Derek Wright added 62 for the second wicket. Dean was top scorer with 45 and Wright scored 25.

But their hopes of pulling off an upset were derailed by Durham and Scotland who took five wickets between them. Scotland claimed three for 52 off nine overs and Durham had two for 42, also from nine overs.

Others among the runs for Flatts were John Carey with 37, Troy Bean with 18 and Gerald Sims with 15.