Lords – PHC, 186 all out, beat Bailey's Bay 165 all out by –21 runs.

If Bermuda head coach David Moore was in any doubts as to the size of the task he faces in rebuilding Bermuda cricket, they will have been permanently dispelled by what he saw in PHC's win at Lords yesterday.

Of the national squad members, and hopeful national squad members on display, only PHC bowler Kevin Tucker, and Bay batsman Stephen Outerbridge emerged from the match with any credit.

Tucker took three wickets for 33 runs as Bay were bowled out for 165, and Outerbridge top-scored with 40 in his team's losing effort. His performance however was slightly soured by events leading up to the game where Bay were unsure if their captain was going to show.

Such was the uncertainty that Terryn Fray was put in charge before the match started, and he had an afternoon he is likely to want to forget. Bowled by a gentle up-and-down delivery from Charles Symonds for 23, Fray's dismissal reduced Bay to 48 for three, and he could then only watch as the rest of his team-mates threw their wickets away with a variety of mindless shots.

The evergreen David Adams benefitted more than anyone from Bay's self-destruction, taking four for 43 from his ten overs, but it says much for the state of the game on the Island that he was allowed to do so.

Of the ten Bailey's Bay wickets to fall yesterday, nine went down to catches, and of the four that fell to Adams' bowling, not one would be classed as a great piece of fielding.

Adams didn't do too badly with the bat either, scoring 20 valuable runs, as he and skipper Kyle Lightbourne, who finished unbeaten on 51 rescued their side from the perilous position of being 104 for five to see them to a slightly more defendable 186.

Jason Anderson was the fifth wicket to go, and even though he scored 53, he should have scored twice as many, and did little to press his case to be given another opportunity by Moore. The PHC opener was dropped twice in his innings, first by wicketkeeper Marvin Trott, and secondly by Kyle Hodsall.

And while he did well to briefly overcome the not inconsiderable sledging he received from Bay, the fact that he got out wafting at a ball outside his off stump when he had been batting for 20 overs hinted at a lack of concentration that would have been exposed far earlier at a higher level.

He also decided that a bump on the hand he received on Saturday prevented him from fielding, leaving Ricardo Brangman to take over behind the stumps for Bay's innings. Whether PHC should have been allowed to use substitute fielder Mark Smith at all is something the Bermuda Cricket Board might want to look into.

They might also be called upon to deal with PHC opener Fiqre Crockwell, whose miserable run of form continues. Fresh off a slap on the wrist for a show of dissent a couple of weeks ago, Crockwell was at it again yesterday, gesturing angrily at his arm after being given out, caught behind, for a duck.

Whether the ball nicked his glove, or hit him on the arm is a moot point, he should have walked without comment, and gone straight to the nets to work on a flaw in his technique that has now become common knowledge.

Bowl it short and straight at Crockwell and you will get him out more often than not at the moment, for whatever reason the PHC man doesn't drop his hands quickly enough and Burton Outerbridge exposed that perfectly.

Chasing 186 should not have posed as many problems for Bay as it ultimately did, but they lost opener Dennico Hollis and Wendell Smith within three balls of a Tucker over, and once Fray fell, Bay, the league leaders before the game, were in trouble.

Glenn Blakeney (25), perhaps making a late bid for a Cup Match spot, returned to the side in the absence of Irving Romaine, and he and Outerbridge put on 46 for the fourth wicket before Blakeney fell to a sharp catch by Brangman off the bowling of Hasan Durham.

Wickets fell with alarming regularity from then on, Tucker had Stephen Outerbridge caught by Lightbourne in the slips, and despite some spirited resistance by Hodsall and Burton Outerbridge, Bay always seemed likely to fall short.