are ready to postpone tonight's opening Martonmere Cup double-header at BAA Field by early this afternoon.

The match-ups have Vasco taking on Southampton Rangers in the opener at 7.00 p.m. followed by last year's finalists, North Village, meeting Dandy Town at 9.00.

The decision hinges on the amount of rain and wind that is expected to hit Bermuda. And since the competition remains one of the BFA's biggest money spinners, an early decision is likely because the Association don't want to see the gate affected by bad weather.

If a postponement is necessary, the matches will be rescheduled for tomorrow night at the same venue and same time.

Two rain-outs last week pushed the Charity Cup back and forced the Martonmere Cup from its scheduled Saturday kick-off. Those postponements put a spanner in the BFA's strategy of implementing the extraordinarily early start to avoid the burden of playing so many make-up matches in the new year.

"We weren't too pleased to see the rain-outs last week, but it really gives us a challenge,'' said BFA general secretary David Sabir.

"We were trying to alleviate the amount of games that would be played at night as the season progressed, and by playing these Martomere Cup games it would be a tremendous help.

"While controlling the weather is out of our hands, we remain optimistic that mother nature will help us alleviate the usual heavy number of make-up night matches that have occurred in past seasons.'' In the feature match tonight, North Village will attempt to make amends for failing to grab the title in last year's final when they lost 1-0 in extra time to Boulevard on a goal by substitute Vernon Phillips.

Village are bound to be motivated this season by having coach Kenny Thompson (formerly with Somerset Eagles) at the helm. They are counting mainly on last season's line-up since there were no major off-season transfer signings.

Dandy Town coach Mark Trott, whose team will be strengthened by the addition of centre-back Dano Outerbridge from PHC, has many of his regulars returning also and will be expecting them to improve on last season.

Despite indications he would resign after last season, John Rebello is still coaching Vasco but it remains to be seen how much an impact the departure of Irving Burgess, Corey Hill and centre-back Shawn Simmons will have on the Portuguese club.