St. George's 195-9

Western Stars 148

St. George's dealt a blow to Western Stars' title aspirations with victory by 43 runs at St. David's . . . but Stars captain Albert Steede still hasn't conceded the race to Southampton Rangers.

“We still want to win the league,” Steede said as St. George's closed in on an inevitable victory.

“Anything can happen in the second half, you never know. We just have to remain optimistic. I wouldn't say the league is not our priority just because we're not doing well, but at this stage our emphasis is on the cup games.

“Somebody has to stop Rangers in the next two weeks, otherwise the league trophy will be theirs.”

Stars were well below strength with Arnold Manders, Saleem Mukudden and Dwayne Leverock all missing and St. George's took advantage in the first of back-to-back meetings with Stars.

They closed out the first half of the Premier Division season having beaten the three strongest teams, Rangers, St. David's and Stars.

A sixth-wicket stand of 63 between Troy Hall and Herbie Bascome enabled St. George's to post their second highest total of the season, as Hall led the way with 59 from 69 balls. He hit five fours and three sixes. After Bascome was dismissed for 17, Gregg Foggo chipped in with a valuable 25 late in the innings as 45 came off the last five overs.

Gershon Gibbons claimed six for 43 off six overs to lead the Stars bowling while new ball pair Kevin Hurdle and Maurice Lowe both had two each, with Hurdle going for just 22 in his 10 overs. Hasan Durham was also very economical in his 10-over spell with figures of 10-4-16-1.

Stars were in deep trouble early on as Gregg Foggo and Wilbur Burt shared the first five wickets to leave the visitors struggling at 19-5 after just 10 overs. Captain Albert Steede, batting at number six, tried to rebuild the innings but fell for 17 to make it 54-6.

Further resistance was offered in a seventh-wicket stand of 61 between top scorer Durham (39) and Justin Robinson (26), but St. George's were always in the driver's seat as the required run rate crept up. Kevin Hurdle, with 25, was the only other Stars batsman in double figures as he hit three fours and a six.

Foggo finished with three for 26 off 10 overs while Burt had a good return against his former team, taking three for seven from just three overs and Charlie Marshall two for 19.

Somerset CC 218

PHC 178

Somerset brought bubbling PHC back down to earth with this 40-run win at Somerset Cricket Club yesterday.

Diminutive opening batsman Sheridan (Baldy) Ming cracked ten fours during a top knock of 63 and found solid support from team-mates Tony Cheeseman, who put on 100 runs for the first wicket with Ming, former skipper Shawn Roberts and veteran Shannon Warner.

Cheeseman scored 25 runs with three fours, Roberts cracked 32 runs off 46 balls which included four fours and two towering sixes while Warner remained undefeated on 43 after managing four fours and a six off 51 deliveries. PHC also yielded 31 runs in extras.

Veteran PHC player/coach and former Somerset Cup Match skipper Andre (Doc) Manders was the pick of the visitors' bowling, claiming three wickets for 20 runs off ten overs including three maidens.

Manders' son Taurean also came good with the ball by grabbing two for 37 off nine overs while Shoron Hunt had two for 39 and skipper Cal Waldron two for 42 off ten overs.

In pursuit of their hosts' challenging total, PHC lost wickets at regular intervals as Somerset's Jacobi Robinson enjoyed one of his better performances of the season.

Opener Arthur Richards stroked a patient 30 runs off 60 balls while Andre Manders managed to forge 28 runs off 39 balls. Tuarean weighed in with a valuable 36 but in the end it proved insufficient as the remaining PHC bats all failed to go onto big scores. The visitors slumped from 77 for three to 156 for eight with Somerset moving in for the kill.

Robinson spearheaded the west enders' attack, claiming four for 53 from nine overs of seam while Cheeseman capped off a fine all-round performance by grabbing three wickets for 28 runs off 7.1 overs of spin.

Shane Hollis managed two for 37 during his ten over spell which also included a maiden while the home team also gave up 34 runs to the extras column.