St. George's 222-3 Willow Cuts 127-5 Wicketkeeper Dean Minors went to hospital with a badly bruised wrist and Willow Cuts also left the game feeling a bit bruised after this draw at Wellington Oval knocked them out of first place in the standings.

Minors took a knock on his wrist while keeping wicket but fortunately X-rays showed only bruising. His captain Wendell Smith took over the gloves and finished with two stumpings off David Adams as Willow Cuts replied with 127-5 after being kept on the field until almost 5 p.m.

Smith led the St. George's batting with 78 while his opposite number, Dexter Basden will be pleased with his fourth half century of the season which included nine fours.

Smith's innings included five fours and three sixes and lasted for three hours and 43 minutes. After losing Eugene Foggo when the score was 16, Smith added 66 with brother Clay who scored 24. Graham Fox was in good touch, hit five fours in his unbeaten 59 which included a stand of 79 with his captain for the third wicket and then an unbeaten 61 for the fourth wicket with Minors who hit 29.

Rodney Fubler claimed two for 39 from 15 overs to lead the Cuts bowling while Richard Basden got the other wicket from 14 tidy overs which cost just 28 runs.

Cuts suffered an early setback when Anthony Fubler departed with just nine runs on the board. But some fluent strokes by Basden off his pads against Phillips in particular accelerated the scoring as he and Kevin Bailey added a quick 48 for the second wicket.

That soon had Wendell Smith coming on as a first chance in a bid to `buy' a wicket with his off breaks but he lasted just one over before deciding that plan wasn't going to work. It was behind the stumps where Smith got the breakthrough, stumping Bailey off Adams and then getting Trevor Dickinson with another stumping off Adams after he had hit 16. Basden was fourth out on 102 but by that time the draw was the most obvious outcome.

Adams finished with three for 17 from 13 overs while Phillips' seven overs cost him 40 runs though he did get the wicket of Andrew Rollins in his second spell.

Somerset 147 Western Stars 148-3 Allan Brangman claimed five for 29 in 15.5 overs and then Arnold Manders tuned up for Cup Match with a dashing 42 not out as Western Stars scored an easy seven wicket win over Somerset at Somerset to take over top spot in the Open Division standings yesterday.

Arnold's younger brother Andre led the Somerset batting with 28 as he and Donovan Livingston (16) strengthened Somerset from 52-3, after two quick wickets had fallen, to 102 with their 50 run stand for the fourth wicket. The 100 came up in 117 minutes.

But the home team failed to build on that as they lost their last seven wickets for just 45 runs as Brangman came back for a second spell to pick up three more wickets.

The other main run contributors were opener Dwight Basden with 25 and Shannon Warner with 19. Arnold Manders claimed two for 42 from 13 overs to support Brangman.

The Stars batting, missing opener Dexter Smith who is abroad for a month, was never tested by the Somerset bowlers as replacement opener Perry Scott grabbed his chance as he hit 31 in a first wicket stand of 55 with Anthony Foggo (19).

Both openers were removed in the space of four runs as Foggo was bowled by Shannon Warner and Scott was trapped lbw by Livingston. Livingston also got Cleon Scotland leg before wicket for 11 as Somerset picked up their third wicket on 84.

But that was to be their last success as Manders smashed four sixes and a four in his 42 while Jeff Richardson hit five fours in his unbeaten 32 which keeps him in the minds of the Somerset selectors leading up to this weekend's final Cup Match trials.

Livingston, leading the Somerset attack in the absence of Perry Maybury and Anthony Bailey, took two for 39 from 11 overs.