Already winners of the Premier Division two-day league and the Belco Cup, Southampton Rangers will today seek to add a third title to their season by capturing the Western Counties Cup in the final at Southampton Oval against challengers Willow Cuts.

Although his team are solid favourites player-coach Janeiro Tucker is not about to take their opponents lightly, mindful that all of the teams competing in the competition have an extra impetus of raising their level in an attempt to dethrone the cup holders.

"Our players have to realise that they can't take victory for granted because all of the teams in this competition, Willow Cuts included, are prepared to take their game to the next level for success," said Tucker.

"It's the highlight of a lot of the team's season and therefore you can understand just why they come to fight all the way. So you just cannot put a team down and say they don't stand a chance."

A slow start to the season with several key players away on senior national team duty has seen Southampton flounder in the Premier Division limited overs league and their current placing in the lower half of the tables suggest that they will not be capable of defending that title, but Tucker admits that they are still on track towards another successful season - one that can see them capture three titles and finish in the top four in the league.

But the immediate task at hand is to win the Counties and with the help once again of guest players and brothers Derek and Lamont Brangman he appears to have confidence they can pull it off.

"We've had a pretty good season despite having been somewhat depleted because of the unavailability of some national players and because of injuries. But everything is starting to come together for us now and even with players like Sluggo and Malachi Jones away we are having good results.

"We expect a hard fight from Willow Cuts, they always come down to Rangers and give their all and we certainly can never take anything for granted against them."

Rangers are coming off two solid wins in the competition, soundly beating Warwick by eight wickets and following up with 66-run triumph over PHC in the last round.

Veteran Dexter Basden is expected to captain Willow Cuts, recently returning to action after missing a few game because of injury while the westenders are counting on Ryan Shepherd for his batting.

Tomorrow St. David's, second in the Premier Division tables, face another tough encounter for the second week in a row when they entertain third place Somerset CC at Lord's.

The eastenders failed in their bid last week to move to the head of the tables when they suffered an eight-wicket defeat against leaders Social Club at Devonshire Rec. while Somerset also had a disappointing seven-run setback against St. George's at Wellington Oval.

This time around St. David'sk, laying on home turf, are favoured over their opponents after giving Social Club a stiff fight.

The key to them winning again lies in the batting of opener Chris Foggo who has been in greast form in recent weeks _ giving batting displays which has many suggesting that he should be recalled to the senior national team as soon as possible.

Additionally the eastenders though must also hope that key run producers like O.J.Pitcher, Shannon Raynor, Fiqre Crockwell, Shannon Raynor and Delyone Borden can make valuable contributions with the bat in league fixtures which they have been unable to do on a regular basis.

Somerset will be striving to improve on their batting which looked lousy against St. George's when they amassed a mere 108 in reply to the 115 put up by the eastenders.

While St. David's are favoured to take maximum points from that match-up they are unlikely to gain any ground on leaders Social Club who should sweep by lowly Cleveland at Devonshire Rec.

Charlie Marshall will be looking at spearheading his team to victory once again - the veteran player-coach having been both consistent and quite impressive with his bowling and batting in recent weeks. Fourth-placed St. George's should be too strong for Flatts at Wellington Oval while defending champions Southampton Rangers, hovering in sixth place, are firm favourites over lowly Western Stars.

The big match in the First Division has leaders Police hosting second-placed Leg Trappers at Police field with just one point separating the teams at the head of the division.

Third-placed Devonshire Rec. are expected to beat fourth place Bailey's Bay at Sea Breeze Oval while fifth-placed Willow Cuts should get the better of Warwick at Somerset. The other game has PHC taking on Somerset Bridge at White Hill in a contest that should produce a close result.