cup-holders Western Stars will have to be razor sharp in order to stand any chance of beating a formidable Police team in today's Central Counties Cup third round at St. John's field (11 a.m. start).

Manders wants his team to forget about their 20-run victory over Police in the Camel Cup semifinal at Devonshire Rec. on May 16, pointing out that the three missing players on tour of England with the Bermuda team -- skipper Gary Brangman, Arnold Manders and Jeff Richardson -- all had a sizeable hand in that stunning victory.

"We will not have them in our line-up this time while Police will have their regular team and we know that they will be our hardest test since the players have been away,'' said Manders.

"Police have one of the top teams in the Island and because we are missing a few players we expect them to be favoured. But we are not going out there expecting to lose, no way,'' he added.

One thing Stars have in their favour is that their team morale is high after recent victories over St. George's in the Limited Overs League on Sunday and Saturday's 65-run triumph over Nationals in the second round of the Central Counties.

Manders' concern is to stress the importance to the players of keeping their game on a high.

"We want to build on those victories. They have given the team confidence, now the players believe in themselves,'' he said.

Looking back at last Saturday's victory over Nationals, Manders gave credit to medium-pacer Leroy (Curly Joe) Wilson who snatched four wickets for 15 and batsmen Dexter Smith and Hasan Durham.

"We were really pleased to see Curly and Hasan come through like they did, they gave a good performance. As for Dexter, he knew what we expected of him and he delivered,'' said Manders.

Smith led the batting with a solid 52 before being run out while Durham scored 50. Smith cracked the Police attack for 70 in that Camel Cup victory last month.

But while Manders will be counting on Smith and other batsmen to deliver the goods once again, there is no doubt that he is also hoping that his bowlers will be able to contain the long line of Police batsmen.

"They have a few explosive batsmen, so our bowling has got to be just as good this time around,'' said Manders, who obviously had such notable players as opener Dennis Archer, Tyrone Smith and skipper Ferdinand Thorne in mind.

Bailey's Bay, Devonshire Rec., Western Stars and Police can clinch quarter-final place in the Limited Overs competition with victories in the fifth round of the round-robin format on Sunday.

All fours clubs are unbeaten and a fifth victory will leave them only to jostle for position amongst the top four of the Gold and Green divisions who will advance to the knockout stage.

Bay travel to Somerset and Devonshire are away to Hamilton Parish in the top Gold Division matches.

Green Division leaders Police have a chance to avenge an Open League loss when they face Cleveland at Sea Breeze Oval and the other top match in that group sees Western Stars travelling to Lord's to face once-beaten St. David's.