The hunt is on at Nationals to find 11 able bodies for Saturday's Benson and Hedges Champion of Champions semifinal match against St. David's at White Hill field (11 a.m.) with the winner facing Southampton Rangers Sunday.

Several players are currently off the Island and the services of Bruce Perinchief may have been lost not only for this match but possibly the rest of the season.

The left-arm spinner sent a letter to the club informing them that because of work commitments he will be unavailable until further notice.

"Hopefully we can field an 11,'' said captain Darrin Lewis. "We haven't had a good training session since I returned from England.'' Much had been expected of Nationals who appeared to have arrived last season when they finished fifth in the league and surprised Police in the final of the Central Counties. They also reached the quarter-finals of the KO Cup before being ousted by Southampton.

However, this year they have been slow getting off the mark, finding runs hard to come by, not looking sharp in the field and generally failing to do the little things that propelled them last year.

"At the moment the guys are finding it a bit difficult,'' said Lewis currently in his fourth year as skipper. "It's just a matter of the guys picking themselves up and getting on with things. We don't have any superstars and everyone has to pull their weight and play together for us to be successful.'' Indeed the mentioning of Nationals does not exactly instill fear in the minds of opponents. But they have shown themselves to be capable of beating anyone on the Island on any given day.

Somerset Cup Match player Perinchief will be sorely missed having collected 16 wickets up to this point. Chris Wright has posed problems to many an opposing batsmen, his fast medium-pace accounting for 25 making the lonely walk back to the pavilion.

Wilfred Hodson has shown a few flashes of brilliance with the ball and Ray brothers Mark and John have also enjoyed marginal success.

They will have little room for error come Saturday against a powerful St.

David's batting line-up expected to contain Allen Richardson and Wendell Smith as well as the big-hitting Devonshire duo of Albert Steede and James Pace.

"St. David's will be pretty strong and probably will use it as a trial game leading up to the Eastern Counties,'' said Lewis. "But we'll come to play...and may the best man win.'' Nationals' highest score thus far has been 234 -- in a losing effort -against Willow Cuts and they will need to at least duplicate that amount if they are to have a realistic chance of emerging victorious.

However, since then they have been dismissed for 113 by Somerset and could only muster 138 against Western Stars in losing the Central Counties Cup.

Lewis and younger brother Jason are both potential game-winners with the bat.

The former has an average of 54.6 rate with three half-centuries to his credit, while the latter is averaging 32.87.

Said Lewis: "We expect them to come at us...we'll deal with whatever happens on the day.

"This is probably the last thing (competition) we have to look forward to unless we can make a late surge in the league.'' BRUCE PERINCHIF -- Out indefinitely.