Cleveland had a nasty taste in the mouth after suffering a humilating seven-wicket defeat in last year's match-up against St. David's in the Eastern Counties Cup.

For this reason skipper Jason Simons and his team are naturally fired up going into today's second-round tie at Lord's, determined to make amends by delivering some sort of payback message to the Islanders who in the previous round easily defeated Bailey's Bay by seven wickets _ thanks to an elegant undefeated century by guest player and current player-coach of Cleveland Clay Smith.

But with Smith opting to withdraw from the champions' line-up in this contest and sit the entire game out, Cleveland will no doubt be encouraged and have reason to believe that their bowlers will have a better chance of dismissing their opponents without the live-wire batting of Smith.

Another bit of encouragement for Cleveland - anxious to end their winless streak of 25 years - is the fact that the champions will also be minus the service of several regulars who are on tour with the senior national squad such as player-coach Lionel Cann and the fast-bowling duo George O'Brien Jr. and Arthur Pitcher Jr.

Even still the challengers continue to be haunted by memories of a year ago when their batting let them down badly as they were dismissed for a paltry 78 off 41.1 overs, leaving St. David's to romp to victory in just 16 overs.

It's not surprising that skipper Simons is a firm believer Cleveland's chances of winning or at least being far more competitive this time, especially with the teams appearing to be evenly matched on paper. "We are definitely looking to make up for last year's defeat, one thing is know is that it's definitely not going to be a repeat of that performance," said the skipper.

"I do believe that we have a good chance against them this time, we have put a lot of work in and we have no fear of them going into the game. All we have to do are the simple things like holding catches and concentrating on what's going on at all times."

Although he is aware of their batting woes in last year's game Simons isn't really concerned about that going into this game, hinting that all of that is well behind them.

"Im really not at all concerned about our batting because we have been batting well all season and I am confident that we can come through and put up some good scores this time," he reckoned.

Cleveland's batting and bowling will be strengthened considerably this time with two veterans coming in to bolster their ranks, Southampton Rangers opener Curtis Jackson and Somerset CC spinner Hasan Durham.

Meanwhile further excitement appears to be on the cards tomorrow with a full slate of games in the two divisions, the feature match-up naturally being the top of the Premier Division clash between Social Club and St. David's at Devonshire Rec.

Social Club currently head the standings but are being closely challenged by the eastenders and Somerset CC with St. George's holding down fourth spot.

Team morale has to be exceedingly high for Social Club who are coming off a six-wicket triumph over lowly Western Stars at St. John's field - a contest that saw skipper Kevin Hurdle turning in a solid all-round display with both ball and bat. First he took three wickets for 32 off nine overs to help spearhead their bowling attack which limited the opponents to a mere 123 and then the skipper struck a superb 49 not out, joining former skipper Jamiko Marshall (30 not out) in an undefeated fifth-wicket stand that put on 75 and carried them to their winning target.

Another inspiring performace saw veteran player-coach Charlie Marshall dominate with the ball rather than the bat for which he is renowned. His tidy slow bowling saw him take his first-ever hat-trick, pulling this off in his first over and finishing with game analysis of three for 22 off four overs.

Additionally with Dennis Pilgrim chipping in to take a further two wickets for 19, one can understand the team's momentum being strong in this contest against the eastenders who themselves must be worried after falling to Southampton Rangers by 50 runs a week ago.

Rangers, reigning champions but seemingly well out of the title chase this time around as they hover in the lower half of the table, notched up 230-7 against the Islanders and then dismissed their opponents for 180. Chris Foggo was one of the few bright spots for the visitors at Southampton Oval with a brisk half century.

But he will need more run support from team-mates in order to help prevent Hurdle's team from taking yet another step towards the championship.

Another close encounter appears to be in the making at Wellington Oval where St. George's host Somerset CC, two teams who are quietly making an impact - something which few expected this season.

The other two fixtures involve teams in the lower half of the tables, Western Stars at home to Cleveland and Flatts entertaining Rangers.