Premier Division side Police have been in England participating with seven other teams in the Motorola International Police Cricket Festival in the Worcester area.

And after a thrashing at the hands of South Africa Police in their opening match, the local bobbies bounced back to win their next two matches against Worcester Police and Western Australia Police before going down by three runs to Barbados Police in their fourth match.

Despite dismissing the South Africans for 157 with Roger Blades claiming two for 20 and Dennis Archer three for 20, Police never got close to their target.

In fact, they could only manage 73 with Blades scoring more than half the runs, 47, to lead the way.

But the side bounced back to beat Worcester Police by six wickets, restricting their opponents to 165-7 in 45 overs and then replying with 169-4 in 41.1 overs. Ferdinand Thorne claimed four for 23 and Cal Smith two for 15 while Stevie Lightbourne was top batsman for the Bermuda side with 66. Terry Thomas hit 22 and Ferdinand Thorne 17 not out.

Western Australia also went down to the Bermuda Police, scoring 156 in 34.5 overs after Sharrieff claimed four for 41 and Blades three for 27. Bermuda replied with 159-4 in 25 overs as Archer ended with 98 not out and Lightbourne scored 23.

The closest match was the Bermuda-Barbados clash which the Bajans eventually won by three runs. For the first time the Bermuda Police conceded more than 200 runs, as Barbados amassed 238-5 in 45 overs with Sharrieff claiming two for 29 and Thorne two for 38.

Bermuda fell just short of victory, scoring 235 all out in 40.5 overs as Lightbourne led the way with 62, Thorne 58, Blades 31 and Sharrieff 29.

After the weekend off, which enabled most of the Bermuda Police team to travel down to Wembley to watch the Charity Shield soccer final between Manchester United and Newcastle yesterday, the local policemen return to action today when they take on St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

They are also due to play New South Wales and Antigua in round robin play, from which the top two teams after the seven matches will play in Friday's final. The teams will be involved in a six-a-side competition on Tuesday.

"The competition is very good. Barbados and South Africa are very well prepared teams,'' said Police team official Richard Austin yesterday after returning from the football final.

"Barbados and South Africa are regarded as the favourites. They had been up here for a week prior to the start of the competition.'' But Austin thinks Police have a good chance of reaching the final, especially with unbeaten New South Wales, South Africa and Barbados still to play each other.

In the South Africa match, Austain said the Bermuda batsmen were "still playing hard wicket shots'' on the slower wickets.

In three of the four matches the Bermuda Police have won the toss and sent in the opposition while in the Barbados match they lost the toss and fielded first.

Bermuda Police are missing the likes of Donovan Livingston, Michael Jackman, Wayne Clarke, Tyrone Smith and Freston Hurdle.

"If we don't finish one or two I guarantee we will be three,'' promised Austin.