Willow Cuts 163 Thanks to a half century by guest player Dexter Smith, combined with steady bowling performances by four of their regular bowlers, Southampton Rangers retained the Western Counties Cup by defeated Willow Cuts by 23 runs in Saturday's final at White Hill.

Predictably, Willow Cuts gave the cup holders their biggest challenge but in the end the westenders fell short of pulling off victory.

The challengers were sweating it out during the latter stages of the game when the odds of winning were becoming increasingly difficult because of fading light combined with the continued loss of wickets.

Southampton reached a respectable total when they batted first, Smith leading the way with 51 and joining his opening partner Keith Wainwright to put on 71.

Wainwright scored 25.

But the solid opening stand wasn't a sign of runs to come because of the remaining batsmen only four reached double figures as Southampton struggled to get beyond the 150-mark. Michael Brangman scored 28, Janeiro Tucker 22, Dwayne Steede 13 and Garry Williams 12 with Southampton being dismissed after 49.4 overs.

Smith's sound performance saw him stroke four fours and two sixes.

Richard Basden was the chief wicket taker for Willow Cuts finishing with four for 52 off 10 overs, including two maidens. Charles Swan claimed two for 41 off 10 overs, two of which were maidens.

Willow Cuts had a poor start when their chase after the winning target of 187 was severely jolted by the loss of their top four batsmen -- Jermaine Warner (4), skipper Dexter Basden (12), Dwight Basden (4) and Davon Wade (0) for just 31 runs.

However, hope was restored somewhat when Richard Basden (31) and Cordell Gilbert (10) put on 25 for the fifth wicket, but when the latter was out lbw to Janeiro Tucker with the score 56 for five Cuts' troubles were far from over.

But Basden and Gladwin Edness were to team up for what proved to be the biggest stand of their innings, putting on 57 for the sixth wicket. However, with Basden departing with the total on 113 (caught by Tucker off skipper Jones) with six wickets down the odds still appeared to be stacked against a win for Cuts. What made it worse was that Edness was never that secure and the remaining batsmen were better known for their bowling ability.

Known to be a battler, Edness hung around and though dropped a total of three times he helped Cuts to come within threatening distance of their target by scoring 58, including a six and three fours. It was the eight-wicket stand of 35 between Edness and Charles Swan (2) that took Cuts within striking range of their target, but the challenge subsided when Edness was eventually caught by Quinton Burch off Jones.