Southampton 180-4 Veteran allrounder Clevie Wade won't have done his Cup Match chances any harm with this fighting performance at Southampton Oval yesterday.

The Rangers player-coach, responsible for guiding the team to their first league championship in 19 years last season, kept them in the title race with a crucial innings of 74 not out, which also virtually knocked his former team out of contention for league honours.

Wade was the last of the specialist batsmen when he came in to partner youngster Ian Armstrong at 60-4, with the home team still 120 runs from their winning target.

But at a rate of better than a run a minute the pair completed a memorable fightback, scoring 120 in 110 minutes to send St. George's crashing to their third loss of the season and out of the top four.

More importantly, second-placed Rangers kept the gap between themselves and leaders Western Stars to five points, with a meeting between the teams still to come at the end of the month.

St. George's fought hard to protect their modest total and had their confidence boosted in the first 11 overs when wicketkeeper Dean Minors held three catches off the bowling of Herbie Bascome and Gregg Foggo to put Rangers at 34-3. Mackie Crane followed up with the wicket of Roland Rhones at 60-4 as St. George's kept on the pressure.

But Wade and Armstrong slowly turned the match back in Rangers' favour as they defied the visitors with their match-winning stand. Wade's knock included six fours and a six while Armstrong scored 41 with just three boundaries in a supporting role.

It was important that Armstrong stay there with Wade as they had only allrounder Sidney Simmons and the four bowlers, Garry Williams, Ryan Belboda, Gary Crofton and David Saltus, to follow.

Bascome claimed two for 38 while Gregg Foggo took one for 28. In his first match back from a bike accident, spinner Eugene Foggo enjoyed an impressive 10-over spell which yielded just 19 runs.

Earlier, Bascome rescued the team from near disaster with 67 in the tailend.

Coming to the wicket at 103-8, he lost Gregg Foggo without any addition to the score before taking matters into his own hands and blasting 67 of the next 76 runs to give his bowlers something to defend.

Bascome hit six fours and four sixes in the last-wicket stand with Mackie Crane who contributed just two runs.

Dexter Smith, Eugene Foggo, Sinclair Gibbons and Ross Dowling all failed to reach double figures before Graham Fox tried to pull the innnings together with 37 when he was fifth out on 66. The only other batsman in double figures before Bascome's late-order heroics was Minors with 21 in the middle order.

Spinner Sidney Simmons claimed three for 38 from 10 overs to lead the Rangers bowling while the other spinner, Saltus, had two for 43 from 10.

Somerset 188 Bailey's Bay 189-9 Bailey's Bay moved from seventh to fifth in the Premier League standings while adding to the misery of a rapidly fading Somerset outfit.

Bay though made hard work of reaching what appeared a not so imposing target of 188 set by the home club.

In the end it took a battling 43 not out from long serving veteran Noel Gibbons for Bay to pull out a victory that keeps them in line for a shot at next year's Camel Cup.

Gibbons came in with the visitors struggling at 96 for five and took up a partnership role with opener Jermaine Warner, who had held up his end while wickets tumbled all around.

The duo carried the score to 147 before Warner finally fell leg before wicket to young Jacobi Robinson for a top score of 56.

Left alone Gibbons, too, found partners hard to hold onto, yet Bay's tail managed to wag just enough to ensure victory as darkness crept across the pitch.

Somerset's attack, while economical, simply could not defend the small total.

Robinson led the wicket takers with two for 17, while captain Wendell White grabbed two for 26 and Hollis weighed in with two for 10 from five overs.

Earlier diminutive wicketkeeper Cordell Gilbert led Somerset's batsmen with 40 before edging a ball to counterpart Irving Romaine behind the stumps off Noel Gibbons.

Others among the runs included opener Tony Cheeseman (31) and Hollis, who tallied 28 at number eight.

Corey Hill was the chief wicket taker for Bay with three from 10 overs of medium pace, while Clarkie Trott accounted for two Somerset scalps.

Somerset remained locked in seventh place following the result.

Devonshire 98 St. David's 100-2 A week after scoring a memorable victory over Somerset, when set 313 to win, Devonshire Rec. came crashing back to earth at Lord's where they failed to score even 100.

St. David's won comfortably by eight wickets to remain in third place in the standings as opener Chris Foggo stroked 60 not out off 64 balls to lead them to victory in just 17.4 overs.

St. David's did have an early scare when Phillip Pitcher and Glenn Blakeney each lasted just two balls as Rec. had them 10-2 in reply with Lemar Caines claiming both wickets.

But no further wickets would fall as Foggo and Sammy Robinson, promoted to number four, shared in an unbroken stand of 90 for the third wicket before and after the tea break. Foggo sealed the win with a six and a four off Rudolph Smith's seventh over while Robinson scored a supporting 16 not out.

Caines claimed two for six in three overs before going off injured.

Earlier, opener Darren Davis' 27 was the top score for Rec. who slumped quickly from 87-3 to 87-7.

Del Hollis and Lionel Cann did the bowling damage for St. David's with six wickets apiece, Hollis giving up just six runs in seven overs which included four maidens while Cann's seven overs cost only 22 runs. Teenager Delyone Borden had one for 23 off 10 overs.

Warwick 50 Cleveland 52-0 Cleveland strolled to an easy and early victory at Wellington Oval after Warwick crumbled against some tight bowling.

Left-armer Harry Rawat, sharing the new ball with Jeffrey Tyrrell, returned figures of three for five from 10 overs with six maidens while Tyrrell had two for 29 off 10 and first-change Courtney Trott two for seven off 3.4 overs.

There were three run-outs in the Warwick innings, including two off the fielding of Jeremy Fray which made it 10-3 and 14-4, from which the visitors never recovered. Warwick then lost three wickets on 27 to sink deeper in trouble at 27-7.

No Warwick batsmen reached double figures with the biggest contribution coming in the extras column of 15.

Cleveland, with Peter Philpott and Carlos Smith opening the innings, reached their target in 11.5 overs as Philpott finished with 23 not out and Smith 13 not out. The win lifted Cleveland up to fourth in the standings.

Flatts 221 Willow Cuts 216-8 With Joseph Matthews failing to score a single run when required to make six from the final over, Willow Cuts fell to a five-run defeat against Flatts at Devonshire Rec.

The match came down to a battle between number eight bat Matthews and number nine Robert Lambe and Flatts last two bowlers, skipper Gershon Gibbons and Andrew Richardson.

When Gibbons started the penultimate over, Cuts required 18 runs and they managed to get 12 off those six balls.

It was then left for Matthews to face Richardson but he nervously failed against the first five deliveries.

The pair attempted to sneak a meaningless single off the final delivery only to see Lambe run out, leaving Cuts five runs short of their target.

Earlier Hewonne Baker led the charge for Flatts with a spirited 73, striking five fours and five sixes and leading them in a recovery after they were once placed on 102 for five.

Also among the runs were Phillip Burgess with 43, Tim Barritt with 22 and Gibbons with 18. Reggie Tucker, who bowled a hat-trick for Cuts, had three for 26 off four overs while Charles Swan took two for 33 and Steven Mendes two for 34.

Kevin Fubler led the Cuts bats with 40 while Mendes scored 28, skipper Dexter Basden 27, Trevor Forth 20 and Dwight Basden 19.

Derek Wright took three for 28 off 10 overs, including two maidens, while Gibbons had two for 42 off nine overs.

Social Club 230 Somerset Bridge 216 At St. John's Field, Social Club scored a narrow victory over Somerset Bridge, Social winning their first game of the season and pulling clear off the bottom. No other information was available last night.

Out of reach: St. George's Graham Fox clips this delivery past Southampton Rangers' Ryan Belboda on his way to a score of 37 during yesterday's Premier League match at Southampton Oval.