A year after coming desperately close to dethroning champions Western Stars, Police will be making another raid on St. John's Field today.. .in search of the Central Counties crown that has eluded them since 1991.

Police were unlucky not to win back the trophy last year when Stars pulled off a one-wicket win with just four balls left in the match.

And back in 1992 they were unlucky again when their scheduled final clash with Stars was rained out.

"The weather doesn't look too promising for this weekend either,'' said former Police captain Dennis Archer yesterday.

Still, Police are confident of their chances of upsetting Stars' hopes of ending the series as champions for the fourth straight year.

"Most of the guys are looking at it as a revenge match,'' Archer admitted.

"The guys are keen on playing and are eager to prove that we can beat Western Stars.'' Stars' strength lies in the batting department where they have the likes of Gregory Sampson, Gregory Francis, Albert Steede, Arnold Manders, Jeff Richardson and Cleon Scotland leading the line-up and Gary and Allan Brangman spearheading the bowling along with spinners Manders, Wayne Richardson and Hasan Durham.

"It's the first time we're going with five bowlers,'' said captain Manders yesterday.

"Nobody can underestimate Police. On the day they can beat anybody. Like I always say whoever plays best on the day in the three departments will win the match. In the one-day game anybody can be beaten.'' Police, too, have their own bowling department boosted by the return of paceman Adrian King who played his first match last weekend.

They will look to King and Roger Blades with the new ball and then medium-pacers Ferdinand Thorne, Richard Austin, Tyrone Smith and spinner Dwayne Leverock to keep the runs to a minimum.

Archer, Smith, Thorne, captain Stevie Lightbourne and Wayne Clark will be the key batsmen.

"We stand as good a chance as any to win this game,'' said Archer. "Normally when it comes to this time of the year we're not together as a team but this year has been different, so that should be one thing going for us.'' Police are fourth in the league standings, but Archer thinks their best chance of winning a trophy this season will be in today's match. "In the league we have to depend on others to lose but this game is it for us,'' he added.

"We need to have our first six, seven players bat as well as they can. I don't think we'll have any problem holding them to a reasonable score but our batting needs to come together and click.

"For too long we've had one or two players out of six or seven perform but we need some kind of support from all of them. Our bowling can hold its own, definitely.'' Manders, like Archer, admitted there was great respect for his opponents and for that reason they could not even afford to look ahead to tomorrow's crucial league clash with Bailey's Bay in what will be their most important weekend of the season.

Victory for the leaders at Sea Breeze Oval will virtually put paid to any hopes Bay have of defending their title and they also have a match with St.

George's still to play. St. George's were the only team to beat them last season in the league.

"We have a lot of respect for both our opponents this weekend,'' said Manders. "We're not even looking at Bailey's Bay yet, we'll look at Bailey's Bay on Saturday evening.

"This is an important weekend for us because even though we've had a good season so far it could all come to an end with a loss both days.

"I've been pleased with my team's progress since the season started. We've been training hard and everybody's been pulling their weight. We haven't had any arguments over who's selected to play, everybody's behind everybody and as long as we stay like that we should be alright.'' Second-placed Nationals are in a good position to take over the league top spot. If Stars and Bay draw and they win their away match against PHC at White Hill, Nationals will go top. Also looking to close in are third and fourth-placed St. George's and Police who are at home to Flatts and Somerset Bridge respectively.

In other matches Somerset are at home to Southampton Rangers, Warwick host Western Counties rivals Willow Cuts at Southampton Oval while Devonshire Rec host St. David's and Social Club meet Cleveland at Nationals.

The first round of the junior Eastern Counties will be played at Sea Breeze Oval today when Bailey's Bay meet Cleveland, starting at 1.00.

The junior match today between North Village and PHC, which was scheduled for Nationals, has been switched to Southampton Oval starting at noon.